Tony Blair angered business leaders last night by agreeing to give trade unions a greater role in the reform of public services.
As the most powerful union bosses emerged from talks with the Prime Minister at Downing Street, the Confederation of British Industry condemned the deal as unfair. It said that business was being denied an "equal opportunity to have a say".
John Cridland, the CBI's deputy director-general, evoked the Sixties and Seventies when deals were stitched together in private between Labour governments and union leaders.
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The argument blew up after Mr Blair, in the hope of avoiding damaging defeats at the forthcoming TUC and Labour Party conferences, bowed to union demands for greater involvement in reform.
He agreed to establish a public services forum at which ministers and union bosses would debate policy on the public services.
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