UNELECTED monarch Elizabeth Windsor trumpeted plans yesterday to impose a 50 per cent turnout hurdle on strike ballots — on behalf of a Tory government backed by less than quarter of Britain. Attacks on trade unions would be among the Tories’ top priorities, she revealed amid the pomp and ceremony of the Queen’s Speech.Plans to introduce the Trade Union Bill were on the first of her government-penned three-page speech.

She announced: “My government will bring forward legislation to reform trade unions and protect essential public services against strikes.”

On top of the 50 per cent turnout threshold, the Bill will include further barriers in essential services such as health, education, fire and transport.

Strikes in those services will be made illegal unless 40 per cent of all those eligible vote in favour of action.

Unions blasted the hypocrisy of the plans, pointing out that the Tories won the support of only 24 per cent of the electorate.

If the same rules were applied to general elections, 270 Tory MPs would not have been elected, according to rail union TSSA.

And RMT general secretary Mick Cash described it as “the clearest possible case of one law for the political class and another for the working class.”

He said: “Only a tiny handful of the hypocrites advocating these ballot thresholds has ever been elected on the same kind of percentages they are demanding in a strike vote.”

Even when unions beat the barriers, the Tories plan to set bosses free to break strikes by bussing in cheap scab labour from employment agencies.

Striking workers will face criminal charges if they break strict picketing rules proposed in the Bill.

And the ability of unions to campaign could be hit by the Bill, which seeks to impose an opt-in process to the union’s political fund for new members.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said it was “staggering” that the government have prioritised an attack on trade unions “given the profound challenges facing this nation.”

He said: “Our members are the people who clean our streets, care for our kids, work in our shops.

“They are not the cause of this country’s broken economy and deserve far better than the hostility directed at them by this government.”

The government’s briefing note setting out the “benefits” of the Bill said it would help Britain “become the most prosperous major economy in the world by 2030.”

And Prime Minister David Cameron described the Queen’s Speech as “the bold first step of a one-nation government — a government for working people.”

But TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said the “draconian restrictions” on strike rights showed the Tories’ true colours.

“Working people will be worried by a Queen’s Speech that declares open season on so many of their rights and protections,” she said.

“The real agenda is stopping public-sector workers from fighting back against the extreme cuts and pay freezes expected in George Osborne’s Budget.”