Union rights restored to GCHQ staff

Staff at GCHQ, the government's intelligence centre, are to be allowed to re-apply for membership of a national trade union and it is believed as many as half the workforce could do so.

The Foreign Office confirmed last night that the Foreign Secretary Robin Cook would carry out what Labour promised to do when they were in Opposition - to reinstate union membership at the centre in Cheltenham, which the Conservatives abolished in 1984.