UNIONS will press Labour this weekend to put “flesh on the bones” of its promised New Deal for Workers in the party’s upcoming Budget.

The TUC and General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) are calling for an end to decades of underinvestment and deindustrialisation.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer could face a trade union backlash over his partys’s economic policies at the TUC annual conference, which starts in Brighton on Sunday.

A debate over the removal of the Winter Fuel Payment for most pensioners is scheduled for Tuesday — the same day as a Commons vote on the policy.

A Unite motion will also call for a 1 per cent wealth tax on assets of more than £4 million to fix “the broken economy” and cover the  “black hole” the government says exists in the public finances.

An RMT motion meanwhile demands Labour’s “arbitrary” and “restrictive” fiscal rules be reformed.

In an interview with the Morning Star, TUC general secretary Paul Nowak described Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s new £7.3 billion national wealth fund as the “beginnings of investment in industrial strategy.”

He said the fund, which the government hopes will attract private investment towards big infrastructure projects across Britain, is “a down payment: I don’t think it’s the be-all end point in terms of the investment we’re going to need in the economy but it’s a useful starting point.

“What we now need to see is how does that link directly to Great British Energy [Labour’s planned state-owned energy company]?

“How does that link to broader industrial strategy that [Business Secretary] Johnny Reynolds is taking forward?”

He added: “Labour’s first mission is to grow the economy and the industrial strategy will be at the heart of that, so I want to see them at the Budget to put the flesh on the bones of that.

“What they have indicated is there will be a Spending Review this year and a further Spending Review next year, and I hope by the time we get through until say spring next year, that the economy will be looking more positive and they will be able to set out a comprehensive programme of investment in our public services in particular.”

The TUC leader also suggested that Ms Reeves should amend her self-imposed fiscal rules that government’s debt-to-GDP ratio should to be falling in five years’ time.

“We’ve long called for fiscal rules — under the previous government but under this government as well — to give the flexibility it needs to invest into the UK economy,” he said.

“I wouldn’t want to see fiscal rules that hold back growth or hold back increases in living standards.

“That’s a difficult circle for the Chancellor to square in the Budget in October … but we want fiscal rules that support the government’s objective to grow the economy and crucially for us, we are not just interested in GDP growth. What we want to see is our members’ wages rise and we want to see their living standards improving.

“That’s how we measure the success of a budget or otherwise and the success, actually, of the value of fiscal rules.

“We’ll have the debate in congress but I absolutely think there is that need for flexibility to make sure that fiscal rules will grow the economy not potentially hold it back.”

GFTU general secretary Gawain Little said: “A key driver of the cost-of-living crisis has been an underlying supply-side weakness in the British economy, following decades of underinvestment and deindustrialisation.

“Labour has an opportunity to reverse this with a real industrial strategy that not only stimulates demand but also addresses the fundamental weaknesses in our productive economy.

“A national wealth fund and initiatives like Great British Railways and Great British Energy are a step forward but need to be part of a comprehensive industrial strategy that includes investment in manufacturing and the protection of key industries like British steel.”