Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC is not really a beer and sandwiches man, so what was on the menu when he was seen slipping quietly into No. 10 yesterday afternoon?

Well, the Labour Party has 27 days to find £7.45m due by the end of the month. Where else are they going to find it?

The TUC no doubt went in to negotiate terms. Perhaps another bung from the government’s “union modernisation” fund to recycle into Labour Party coffers? Some new employment regulations? Perhaps a bit of public sector pay upward flexibility? Gordon will definitely have been listening to his paymaster…