DAVID CAMERON unintentionally came clean about Tory attempts to ban dissent by working people yesterday when he admitted the Trade Union Bill amounted to “anti-strike laws.”

Government ministers had insisted the Bill was not an attack on trade union rights, but the Prime Minister revealed its real intention just hours after the proposals were published. 

Labour MP Ian Lavery told the Star it was clear the Bill represented “the greatest attack on working people in 30 years.”

Mr Cameron made the Freudian slip at Prime Minister’s Questions as he came under pressure from acting Labour leader Harriet Harman. 

Ms Harman said plans to restrict strikes — that breach international labour law — showed he was “just governing in the interests of the Tory Party.”

The red-faced PM responded by going on the attack, claiming her question showed Labour was “going off to the left.”

And in a flurry of right-wing rhetoric, he blurted out: “What have we heard from them? They oppose every single one of our anti-strike laws.”

A 50 per cent turnout threshold will be imposed on all strike ballots if the Trade Union Bill, which will receive its first reading next week, is passed. 

Despite the Tories’ refusal to consider secure online ballots to boost turnout, workers in “essential public services” face even greater restrictions.

Strikes in health, education, fire, transport, border security and energy will be banned unless 40 per cent of all union members eligible to vote approve action. 

Even when unions overcome those barriers, bosses will be able to break strikes by bussing in agency workers.

Workers could also face criminal charges simply for standing on a picket line with more than six people. 

Asked by the Star whether Mr Cameron’s outburst confirmed the proposals amounted to “anti-strike laws,” a spokesman for the PM said: “No. It doesn’t … the right to strike remains” — despite the PM’s comments completely contradicting the government’s official line. 

Skills Minister Nick Boles attempted to play down the Bill’s effect when quizzed on Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday. 

Asked whether it was an attack on the right to strike, he said: “No, not at all. The right to strike is absolutely something we must maintain.”

He attempted to reassure listeners that “all we’re trying to do is strike a fair balance between the interests of unions and the public.”

Mr Lavery, chairman of Labour’s trade union group of MPs, described the Bill as a “catalogue of limitations to trade union freedoms and civil liberties.”

He said: “What we have seen today proves more than ever that the Tories have their sights set firmly on Britain’s six million trade unionists.

“Instead of fighting to better the lives of working people — who have been hit by the Tories’ own policies — they have chosen to undermine their rights at work.

“Put simply, this Bill is the latest in a long line of restrictive measures designed to crack down on our democratic rights and should be opposed at every turn.”