Andrew Dismore is Labour MP for Hendon, and a Fremantle strike rally regular:

'What you have to understand is that this is a Conservative council here and they are the ones that are making these decisions,' he told me after the strike rally at Burnt Oak in November 2007. 'We have a Conservative council in Barnet.'

'But you’re in government and you have a situation here where TUPE is being dismantled by a private company. What can Labour do to protect against that?' I asked.

'Well, yes,' Dismore said. 'People have to go to a tribunal. It’s not just about the public sector,' he added. 'I am supporting [employment] rights for agency workers as well. Okay,' he said. 'Thank-you.'

I asked Dismore again if he could say exactly what the Labour party planned to do for the Fremantle workers.

'Well, it’s the union’s campaign,' he said. 'What I will be doing is talking to John (Burgess, the Barnet Unison branch secretary) about turning the heat up on the Tories.'

He said he had two ideas that he was going to share with Burgess, 'but I’m not telling you what they are.’

A few months later, I asked Burgess if Dismore had ever come good with his two ideas. Burgess laughed, and shook his head.

Photo: Andrew Dismore at the November 2007 Fremantle strike rally.