Tony Blair made a discreet entrance when he arrived in Brighton for the TUC Congress.

He made his way into the Brighton Centre through a back door, avoiding a variety of campaigners handing out leaflets outside the front entrance.

The Prime Minister addressed the opening day of the congress with a keynote speech pledging to focus his attention on domestic issues.

Mr Blair said people were wrong to think he had neglected home affairs as the Iraq war dominated the political and media agenda over the past year.

He said: "Since I stood here in this hall on September 11, 2001, and spoke about this new form of terrorism our world faces, we have never stopped working on that bread and butter, domestic, real-life agenda."

He added: "Even if I've never been away, it's time to show I'm back."

In a half-hour speech, Mr Blair said the poorest working families were more than £3,000 a year better off in real terms since Labour came to power in 1997.

Mr Blair promised to uphold the deal he made with unions at Labour's national policy forum in Warwick this summer but said there could be no return to the Seventies' closed shop and flying pickets.

The Prime Minister warned trade unions he would not reverse his Government's programme of modernisation and change.

He told the union delegates the Government was delivering record investment in public services which had led to an improvement for workers and people who used the services.

But the Government was not interested in an agenda about secondary industrial action, flying pickets or the closed shop.

"Leave the past to the past," said Mr Blair, who arrived in Brighton carrying a red ministerial box and looking relaxed and confident.

"We won't go back to the agenda of the past. But there is much for us to do on the new agenda and do it together."

He promised legislation to protect migrant workers from exploitation following the Morecambe Bay tragedy, better safety for front-line public sector workers, laws to allow corporations to be sued for corporate manslaughter and measures to close the pay gap between men and women.

The TUC delegates gave Mr Blair a lukewarm response, applauding politely several times during his speech.

But they clapped for less than 20 seconds at the end of the speech and studiously remained in their seats.

On Sunday, unions warned of possible general strike action over job cuts and the pensions crisis.

Mr Blair said there was no easy solution to the pensions problems but the state pension and guarantees for the poorest pensioners would always be part of Labour's approach.

He said unions needed to continue to adapt to the challenges of the new economy, adding: "Once before, you took a decision to put aside the past in order to equip the Labour Party to govern successfully. Today I ask you as social partners to do the same."

Earlier, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber acknowledged the Government's achievements but said Labour's second term had seen its share of disappointments, not least over the Iraq war. He said: "The phrase 'love-hate relationship' could have been invented to describe the party's relations with the unions."

But he was looking forward to a new and constructive relationship with the government.

TUC president Roger Lyons urged delegates not to take Labour for granted.

He said: "There will need to be a united drive for a third Labour term if we are able to prevent the return of the only realistic alternative - another Thatcherite regime."

Tuesday September 14, 2004