TORIES should abandon plans to push civil servants out of trade unions, shadow Cabinet Office minister Jonathan Ashworth said yesterday.

Labour MP Mr Ashworth claimed vindication after it emerged that HM Revenue and Customs would follow the lead of the Home Office and the Department for Work and Pensions and end the “check-off” system for paying union dues.

Under check-off, union fees are automatically deducted from the wages of staff that sign up to join the union.

Mr Ashworth raised the alarm in Parliament in November, when a leaked memo revealed that HMRC senior management believed its “business interests” were best served by an approach that “reduces the influence of the unions.”

The paper set out a plan to “marginalise” Civil Service union PCS and said “further proactive measures targeted at key union activists” would be considered.

Yesterday, Mr Ashworth told the Star: “I’ve been warning for some time that the Tories want to end check-off.

“It’s yet another example of their spiteful anti-union agenda.

“Check-off is perfectly sensible and reasonable in the public sector, and indeed it is used in the private sector too. The Tory government should abandon these plans.”

PCS said the move was part of a wider anti-union campaign in the Civil Service — which also included reducing reps’ facility time.

General secretary Mark Serwotka blasted: “This is the greatest challenge our union has ever faced. We are clearly being attacked because we continue to oppose this government’s ideologically driven and damaging spending cuts.

“But we will not be silenced. We are determined to put trade union rights at the centre of the general election and we will still be going strong long after this crop of Cabinet ministers have been booted from office.”

Ending check-off, alongside job losses in the public sector, would mean a loss of up to £6.5 million in income, according to the union.

Such revenue constraints were cited as the reasoning behind the PCS executive’s decision to sell off its south ­London HQ and suspend elections until next year.

Check-off has been standard in the Civil Service since the 1970s. PCS is now seeking to transfer staff to direct debit payments.