UNITE general secretary Len McCluskey blasted the Tories yesterday over their plans to ram through picketing restrictions similar to “what the nazis did.”

Labour’s annual conference affirmed that the party should legislate to allow workers to take action in solidarity with disputes outside their workplace, which is currently illegal under Thatcher-era anti-union laws.

The current Tory Trade Union Bill, which passed its second reading in the Commons earlier this month, was condemned by shadow business secretary Angela Eagle as “vindictive and draconian.”

She vowed that Labour MPs would “fight tooth and nail to defeat it.”

“It undermines the very concept of democracy by counting non-voters as No voters,” she stormed.

“It seeks to silence the legitimate collective voice of trade unions and bankrupt our party while leaving the Tories’ millionaire donors completely untouched.”

Alongside imposing strike thresholds and forcing workers to give advance notice of social media posts, the new Bill will require pickets to identify themselves by wearing armbands.

It has been condemned by campaigns including Liberty and Amnesty International as an affront to civil liberties — and Tory MP David Davis said its measures were akin to laws in General Franco’s Spain.

Mr McCluskey welcomed the new Labour leadership’s commitment to opposing the Bill.

“It will not be us fighting alone as we were too often in the 1980s,” he said.

And he vowed to defy the restrictions if passed into law.

“I will not be wearing an armband with a red triangle like trade union prisoners,” he stormed.

“Remember, that’s what the nazis did to trade unionists in the concentration camps of Dachau — [forcing trade unionists to] wear armbands with red triangles.”

Unison delegate Wendy Nichols warned that the restrictions on unions’ political funds imposed in the Bill would also limit the labour movement’s support for anti-fascist work, “risking a return to the rise of the BNP and the far right.”

Ucatt national secretary Brian Rye said: “It was the late John Smith who said Labour must secure employment rights from day one. It’s a commitment we must resurrect.

“Let’s demolish that sickening lie once and for all that the Tories are on the side of the workers.”

Broxtowe constituency delegate Pete Radcliff said: “Sympathy action, solidarity action… should be the democratic rights of trade unionists.

“Instead they are illegal.”

He said trade unionists should also be able to take industrial action over political issues.

“For years our unions have been trying to defend their members with their hands tied behind their backs,” he added.