# The infamous ‘beer and sandwiches’ were replaced by ‘cheap unbranded’ biscuits and tea: Inside the pre-Budget No 11 backdoor summit between union barons and the Chancellor

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/the-infamous-beer-and-sandwiches-were-replaced-by-cheap-unbranded-biscuits-and-tea-inside-the-pre-budget-no-11-backdoor-summit-between-union-barons-and-the-chancellor/
- Published: 2026-10-22T21:41:20+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-22T22:16:28+00:00
- Original publisher: Daily Mail (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16230127/Inside-pre-Budget-No-11-backdoor-summit.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
- Topics: Americas, Business, Geopolitics, Markets, Politics, World

## Key points

- Healey met more than a dozen union leaders before the Budget.
- Union leaders pressed for higher spending and new taxes.
- Attendees reportedly received tea, coffee and cheap biscuits.

## Summary

The article reports that Chancellor John Healey met more than a dozen union leaders at No 11 ahead of next Wednesday’s Budget. It portrays the private meeting as giving unions privileged access to press for changes, drawing comparisons with the “beer and sandwiches” talks between Labour governments and union leaders in the 1960s and 1970s.

Attendees reportedly had tea, coffee and cheap unbranded biscuits, with each union leader allowed two questions. Unison’s Andrea Egan called for taxes on wealth, while NEU leader Daniel Kebede pressed for more school funding, citing figures that 74 per cent of schools in England have less real-terms funding than in 2010. GMB chief Gary Smith sought greater defence spending and support for energy-intensive industries.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.