THE government claimed it will “consider” ideas that could boost strike vote turnouts yesterday in response to a Trades Union Congress call to bring ballots into the modern age. 

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said a law change to allow electronic voting would see participation soar in a letter sent to Business Secretary Vince Cable. 

She penned the letter after Prime Minister David Cameron attacked trade union democracy in a bid to divert public attention away from the poverty pay that sparked last week’s strike. 

Ms O’Grady was clear his call for a 50 per cent ballot threshold “amounts to an attempt to ban strikes by the back door.”

And she challenged the government to put up — by allowing workers to vote on laptops of mobiles — or shut up. 

“It seems strange for some ministers to slam unions for low turnouts whilst having little enthusiasm for the 21st-century methods of voting that would encourage greater participation,” she said. 

Electronic voting would require the government to replace the outdated 1992 Trade Union and Labour Relations Act.

A spokeswoman for Mr Cable’s department said: “The government understands the need to modernise the way in which union ballots are held, whilst also allowing all union members to use whatever method is best for them to communicate with their union.

“There are no current plans to change industrial action law, however we will keep any ideas under consideration.”

Their verdict comes as official figures reveal that strike days soared to 443,600 last year from 248,800 in 2012. 

More than 90 per cent of the action was taken over poverty pay.