GORDON BROWN'S maiden TUC speech as Prime Minister fell flat yesterday amid a storm of criticism over public sector pay, workers' rights and Europe.

Despite a series of supposedly crowd-pleasing announcements designed to boost jobs and protect employees, Mr Brown received a lukewarm response from delegates at the Brighton conference.

Union leaders dismissed the 40-minute address as a "lecture", and warned their members could start to "walk away" from Labour unless the Premier took their concerns more seriously.

Within hours of Mr Brown delivering an uncompromising rejection of above-inflation pay rises, union leaders announced that workers in the biggest Whitehall department had overwhelmingly rejected a three-year deal, raising the threat of strike action.

The vote, by members of the Public and Commercial Services Union, fuelled speculation that the Government faces an autumn of discontent by millions of public sector employees.

Mr Brown told delegates he would "always put stability first", hammering home the point that there would be "no loss of discipline, no resort to the easy options, no unaffordable promises, no taking risks with inflation".

He said: "So let me be straightforward with you. Pay discipline is essential to prevent inflation, to maintain growth and create more jobs - and so that we never return to the old boom and bust of the past."

If inflation was allowed to get out of control, the country could go back to the "same old familiar pattern" of spiralling prices, high unemployment and public spending cuts that there had been under the Tories, according to Mr Brown.

As the Premier rose to his feet, some delegates held up protest placards which said: "Fair Pay for Public Servants".

The audience listened in silence, with only a few ripples of approval during passages about the unveiling of a statue of Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square, moves to bolster enforcement of the minimum wage, and a pledge to stand up to the BNP.

He was rewarded with less than 30 seconds of applause when he sat down again.

Mr Brown said he wanted to fulfil Labour's aim of full employment with "a British job on offer for every British worker", and pledged to fast-track people into half a million new posts.

Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, warned there was a "big gap" between the rhetoric and the reality of Mr Brown's Government.

"He said nothing about fat cats in the City or about the private equity industry - and it left me with even more problems about tying in the rhetoric with the reality.

"The speech was not received wonderfully well, even though he used some heartstrings such as mentioning Nelson Mandela."

Mr Kenny warned that his union's members could "walk away" from Labour unless relations improved.

"We sign a cheque every year for £2m for Labour, yet we can't get basic rights for agency workers."

RMT general secretary Bob Crow hit out at Mr Brown for failing to listen to trade union concerns, saying the lack of detail in his speech showed he had "no intention" of giving any ground.

"People were saying he might turn up with something on this, he may come up with something on that," he said.

"The reality is he treated people with contempt on the European Union Reform Treaty here today."