Brown warned over fuel bill "betrayal"
Britain's most powerful union, Unite, warned embattled Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Friday that failing to impose a one-off tax on utility firms to help families cope with soaring fuel bills would be a "betrayal".
Bush says ready to delay Africa trip over spy billBrown is trying to reverse Labour's fortunes with an economic rescue plan aimed at propping up the property market and easing the impact of rising living costs as Britain flirts with its first recession since the early 1990s.
Many Labour activists, including the unions that provide much of the party's funding, want Brown to hit energy firms with a windfall tax and give poorer families a one-off cash gift.
"If we don't do that, then we will have betrayed our people and our party," Tony Woodley, joint leader of Unite, told the BBC.
"If you don't turn around and don't stand up now against vested interests and just work for ordinary people then don't be surprised when this country fights back and ... in the Labour case, sees them go into opposition."
Unite was formed in 2007 when the Transport and General Workers' Union merged with Amicus. It has over two million members in the manufacturing, technical and skilled industries.
The government's much-hyped economic relaunch, including raising the bar at which taxes on buying a home must be paid, has received a lukewarm response this week, triggering renewed calls for Brown to quit after just over a year in the top job.
He is expected to unveil further measures involving a fund with energy firms to help make households more energy efficient.
Last week, the remaining two of Britain's big six energy suppliers, ScottishPower and RWE Npower, hiked their prices by up to a third, leaving families facing larger bills this winter with inflation already at its highest since the early 1990s.
In a speech on Thursday, Brown appeared to rule out a windfall tax and any one-off giveaways.
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