Union row derails Blair bid to woo public sector

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Public service reform: warm words, but the detail will be a minefield

Leading article: Soft soap won't wash with public servants - tell them the truth instead, Mr Blair

The Cabinet will attempt to get its plans to reform public services back on track today after Tony Blair's latest relaunch was overshadowed by another row with the trade unions.

At a special meeting at Chequers, ministers will discuss how to persuade public sector workers to embrace change. The session will try to ensure a more coherent strategy across different Whitehall departments.

"We are tip-toeing through a minefield, and the message has sometimes been muddled," one minister admitted yesterday. "The challenge is how to love the workers to death but also make the case for change without calling them wreckers."

Today's Cabinet "away day" will also discuss the Budget on 17 April and the three-year spending programme to be agreed by July. There are signs that the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, is heading for a clash with Cabinet colleagues over his plans to trim several billions of pounds from their bids for extra spending on crime, education, transport and defence so that he can channel more money to health.

In an article today, Mr Brown makes clear that tax cuts for business will also be a priority. He says that encouraging wealth creation is the "essential driver of a higher standard of living and the surest long-term guarantee of better public services for all".

Yesterday Mr Blair unveiled a glossy pamphlet setting out the Government's reforms, 10,000 copies of which will be sent to public servants. He said: "I know there is still a huge amount to do. I also know we can't do it without the dedication and skill of the people who work on the frontline."

Downing Street dismissed criticism that the document was a propaganda exercise. It said: "This is not talking down to public servants or dictating to public servants. This is part of a general dialogue with public servants across the board, listening to their frontline experience."

But the launch was overshadowed by the leak of Cabinet papers suggesting ministers may break their promise to prevent private firms which take over public services creating a "two-tier workforce" by offering new recruits worse terms than existing staff.

Mr Blair's official spokesman insisted the Government stood by its previous commitments and that no final decision had been made. He added that the papers had not yet been considered by ministers.

However, union leaders fear that Mr Blair will bow to pressure from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) to water down the Government's pledge by bringing in a code of practice rather than statutory guarantees for workers. John Edmonds, general secretary of the GMB union, said: "Public sector workers will simply not allow the Prime Minister to renege on clear commitments that were given. The time has come for the Government to stop kow-towing to big business and start standing up for the people who elected it."

David Taylor, the Labour MP for North West Leicestershire, said: "Public sector reform must not be at the expense of public sector workers, not just because decent rights at work are correct in principle but also for the simple reason that reform cannot be achieved without the support and commitment of public servants."

But the CBI said it was "encouraged" by speculation that the Government was planning to back a code of practice. Digby Jones, the CBI director general, said: "The Government should demand that contractors are good employers but much-needed reform will not become a reality if they are merely carbon copies of the public sector."

Iain Duncan Smith, the Tory leader, attacked the Government's "command and control" approach to public services in a document analysing the NHS.