Brilliant. The TUC have welcomed the Tory manifesto policy of forcing the public sector and businesses to give staff three days off to volunteer:

“Trade unions are the UK’s biggest voluntary groups. This new right will give every union member a guaranteed three days for time off to get involved with union activities.”

Great!

Having spent three years trying to stop the unions agitating on the taxpayer, the government will give them three days off to organise.

Unless of course political activity is excluded from the policy?

A question to which nobody has managed to give Guido a straight answer, yet… 

UPDATE:

A Conservative Party spokesman is adamant:  ‘It definitely won’t include trade unions’.

Sources claims they can exclude union activity (which is not charitable) at a legislation writing level.

We shall see…

UPDATE II: 

TUC hit back again. Frances O’Grady says:

“Confusion is growing by the minute about the Conservatives’ time off for volunteering pledge. First Eric Pickles can’t make up his mind whether it is a right at all, and now the Conservatives say that there will be an approved state list of volunteering opportunities which will not include trade union activity. One wonders whether they will go on to ban help at food banks,  giving advice to workers on zero-hours contracts or community wind power projects.”