Union baron Mick Lynch has vowed to seize control of the UK economy.

Mr Lynch, whose RMT union brought much of the country to a standstill through rail walkouts, said the “prize” is “universal” influence over all of the nation’s industries.

The Royal College of Nursing left Chancellor Rachel Reeves red-faced after announcing it was rejecting the Government’s 5.5 per cent pay hike offer in the middle of her speech.

And Mr Lynch called for a sweeping expansion of union powers which would make it easier to shut down industries if their demands are not met.

He said: “The problem at the moment is that the unions are not in every sector, effectively.

“We’re not in every workplace. We’re not able to influence non-union recognised workplaces, whereas up to the 1970s and 80s, we were.

“So if you went on a job as a construction worker that wasn’t organised, you tended to get the union agreement anyway, because it was enforceable by those workers.’

He added: “And that’s the prize we’ve got to keep our eyes on – that union influence is universal across the United Kingdom, completely universal.

“The complete organisation of the UK economy by trade unions – that’s our aim.”

Many have warned that Labour’s capitulation to the unions over inflation-busting pay rises for public sector workers will embolden the barons to walk out more.

While unions are united in welcoming the repeal of Conservative laws on minimum turnouts in strike ballots, and minimum service levels during industrial action, they are not all agreed on the detail of Labour’s new laws.

Suggesting that a fresh wave of crippling strikes could be unleashed if the Government tries to water down the New Deal, which some union bosses fear may happen under pressure from business, Mr Lynch added: “We never step back from organising workers and we won’t do so under a Labour Government, no matter how diluted this Act may become.”

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: “At the end of the day, the unions are Labour’s paymasters.

“They will end up capitulating again and again as they always have done.

“What we now know is that Keir Starmer’s government is going to look a lot more like Harold Wilson’s than Tony Blair’s. Wilson was a prisoner to the unions.”

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden has said that getting a deal with striking nurses is an “essential step” in fixing public services.

Speaking a day after nurses rejected a deal that included a 5.5% pay rise, Mr McFadden said: “When we came into office we wanted to try and put these industrial disputes behind us and get the public services back to work.

“That doesn’t fix them overnight, but it’s an essential step on that road.

“So you know, we will do what we can but there’s always competing pressures for public spending.”

He later added: “We’ll try and treat workers fairly, we’ll try and make sure people are properly rewarded.

“But everybody knows there’s not an unlimited amount of public spending.”