David Cameron set for historic meeting with union leaders

The Prime Minister is set for a historic meeting with union leaders today amid growing anger over public sector spending cuts and thousands of job losses.

Sources told the Press Association that David Cameron has invited leaders of the biggest unions in the country as well as the TUC for talks in Downing Street.

Union sources said it will be the first official meeting between a Tory Prime Minister and the leaders of the union movement in 25 years.

The last official meeting was at the end of the miners' strike in 1985 when the then TUC general secretary Norman Willis met Margaret Thatcher.

In his seven years in Downing Street, John Major never officially met the TUC although he did meet individual union leaders privately.

Today's meeting between the Prime Minister and the union delegation will mark the end of a long cold war between the Tories and the unions, sources said.

It is believed that Len McCluskey, newly elected leader of Unite, the biggest union in the country, is among those invited to the meeting.

The news comes as unions gear up for a campaign against the spending cuts, with the TUC planning a huge demonstration in London next March.