Maude: ‘We will engage’

Francis Maude, Cabinet secretary, comments to the Today programme on relations between unions and the government:

“I want there to be a genuine partnership with trade unions.

“They have an absolutely legitimate stake in what the government’s proposing to do, and we will listen carefully to what they say and that the arguments that they make. There is no question about that.

“We’re not going back to the days where there is a complete standoff between the trade unions and government – those days are gone. We want to engage. We do engage.”