Walkout, jeers as Blair faces last trade union conference

BRIGHTON - Prime Minister Tony Blair's fractious relationship with Britain's union movement came to an end yesterday amid bouts of heckling and a walkout by delegates at the Trades Union Congress' annual conference.

Blair and much of his audience sighed with relief as "the great showman" took his final bow to a mix of polite applause and sullen silence.

He faced cries of "shame" and "bring them home" as he began by paying tribute to the British servicemen who had died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And he delivered his traditional warning to his union audience that the policies demanded by the TUC would lead to the return of a Conservative government.

Bob Crow, leader of the RMT rail union, led 30 delegates out of the hall in protest at the Blair Government's policies.

- INDEPENDENT