Ministers tonight announced a major climbdown on a flagship bill after trade unions threatened to ease off on their anti-Brexit campaign, PoliticsHome has learned.

The Government said it was ditching plans to ban public sector workers from paying their union subscriptions directly from their wage packets.

The policy was a key plank of the Trade Union Bill currently going through parliament.

Under a compromise deal, ministers have agreed that the so-called "check off" system will now continue, so long as the trade unions pay for it.

A Government spokesman said: "This agreement will remove the taxpayer-funded administrative burden on public sector employers by transferring the cost of paying subs to individual unions. We continue to encourage union members to pay their subs directly to their union to forge a closer relationship with their workplace representatives."

PoliticsHome has been told that trade union bosses warned ministers that unless they watered down the legislation, they would not campaign hard to keep Britain in the EU.

With David Cameron's own political future hingeing on the result of the referendum, the Government has finally relented.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: "There’s much that’s wrong with the Trade Union Bill, but banning unions from using the check-off system to collect membership fees from employees in the public sector was among the most mean-spirited of all its proposals.

"But thanks to a good deal of union campaigning behind the scenes, Unison and the TUC have built an effective coalition in the Lords that persuaded the Government a ban would be both unjustified and unnecessary.



"Employers and unions across the public sector will have breathed a collective sigh of relief at today’s news that there has been a sensible change of heart in Westminster. And there’s no cost to the public purse as a result of this decision."

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “We are delighted the government has listened and backed away from ending check-off in the public sector.

"Banning workers from choosing to pay union subs in a convenient way through their payroll would, as many have warned, damaged industrial relations and morale in key services."