USDAW leader Paddy Lillis slammed the “incompetent, immoral and ineffective” Tory government today in a rousing speech to the retail union’s annual delegate meeting in Blackpool. 

The general secretary urged members hit by plummeting take-home pay amid double-digit inflation to ensure the union remains the “strong, proud voice of workers” in retail, distribution, road transport, manufacturing, funeral services and call centres. 

Speaking in Blackpool’s Victorian-era Empress Ballroom, he said: “We need to be strong in the workplace but in Parliament and the media too, so we can hold this incompetent, immoral and ineffective government to account.