Michael Gove has led a pre-conference season assault on Labour leader Ed Miliband, accusing him of allowing trade union influence back into the front line of his party.
In a series of attacks, Mr Gove told an audience at the Conservative’s headquarters in London that far from reducing union influence over him, Mr Miliband’s proposed reforms to the relationship with Labour will increase the problem.
The Education Secretary said Labour is “sinking back into their pre-Blair position of living in the unions’ shadow”.
Mr Miliband has pledged fundamental reform of the unions’ relationship with the party in the wake of the controversy over Unite’s involvement in candidate selection in Falkirk.
The party’s biggest donor was accused of signing up members in the constituency so it could influence the choice of a candidate.
The Labour leader is set for a rough ride over the reforms when he addresses the TUC annual conference next month in what is expected to be his first major speech after a bruising parliamentary recess.
Critics, including several senior party figures, have complained that the party has failed to get its case across to the public or to hold the Conservatives to account over the long break.
Mr Gove urged Mr Miliband to go further on his reforms, working with the government to change the law on third party campaigning in politics and to allow union members to direct the political levy to a party of their choosing.
Mr Gove said: “With him in place, radical left-wing union leaders now believe the Labour Party can be theirs again, and they are taking it back seat by seat, policy by policy, before his impotent gaze.”