Strike laws same as Labour sets policy

The Labour Party agreed a set of policies on Sunday that will form the basis of its manifesto for the next general election, due by mid-2010.

However the party, fresh from a humiliating by-election defeat and trailing the Conservatives in opinion polls, did not commit to making industrial action easier as labour unions had demanded.

"There is no change on procedure for industrial action or ballots, nothing that makes strikes easier and no return to secondary action," a party spokesman said after a policy-making gathering attended by local bodies, MPS, unions and others.

Businesses had worried that politicians would come under pressure to relax labour laws given that unions now provide the bulk of the party's funding following its waning popularity.

Labour also agreed to look at ways of making flexible working easier, such as extending parental leave and making paternity leave more flexible.

However, the spokesman said the party made no taxation commitments and no "unaffordable spending commitments" at the meeting in Warwick University.

Labour badly needs to regain the public's support after policy blunders, an ailing economy and rising prices soured the mood towards Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government.

"Our agreed policy platform matches the aspirations and concerns of British people. This stands in stark contrast to the vague, shallow words of the Tories (Conservatives)," the Labour Party said in a statement following three days of talks among party activists.

The weekend meeting followed a humiliating defeat for Labour when it lost one of its safest parliamentary seats, Glasgow East, to the Scottish National Party.

That shock loss sparked renewed debate about Brown's future as prime minister after 13 months in the job.

Sunday's papers were rife with reports of worried Labour backbenchers contacting cabinet minsters to ask them to persuade Brown to go.

A poll for the Sunday Telegraph found that the Conservatives had a 24-point lead over Labour in key marginal seats.

However, senior government ministers said on Sunday there were no plots afoot to oust Brown, with one of his potential successors saying he was not interested in taking over the job.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who newspapers have widely speculated is being backed by senior Labour MPs to take on Brown as leader, said he had no plans to stand against him.