Labour in crisis: Union boss tells Brown to declare Blairism dead

Tony Woodley, the joint general secretary of Unite, has an op-ed in Friday’s Guardian demanding that Gordon Brown declare that “Blairism is dead”. Woodley claims that “Brown has one last window of opportunity. Face down the Blairites within. Clear the apologists for the big bonus brigade out of the cabinet and make Labour once more the party for state intervention for social justice.”

Now, it is no surprise that Woodley—who is a long standing opponent of Blairism—is calling on Labour to move to the left. But given Labour’s current difficulties both electoral and financial, Woodley’s words matter more than they did in the past.

If the leadership go to Warwick with Labour having lost Glasgow East, then they are going to be in a particularly weak position to resist the Union’s demands.