TRADE unions must become the most effective opposition if Labour keeps attacking the poorest, National Education Union leader Daniel Kebede said on Tuesday night.

Addressing a standing-room-only Socialist Campaign Group-Labour Assembly Against Austerity fringe meeting, Mr Kebede said Labour needed to reverse its decision to means-test the winter fuel allowance and roll out free school meals for all.

Lifting the two-child benefit cap was a “no-brainer” that would lift 300,000 children out of poverty at a stroke, he said. “What sort of government continues that [cap]? It’s absolutely abhorrent.”