Ed Miliband’s supporters have been arguing that he needs to show muscle on the Unite row before his opponents successfully argue that he is a weak leader in thrall to the union puppet masters. While Conservative MPs joked abut Tom Watson’s ‘Buddha’ comments in the Chamber this morning, the Labour leader did speak out about Len McCluskey and the Falkirk row. To his credit, he has shown that muscle. He is referring the Falkirk allegations to the police this afternoon, and this morning, he said:
We will act without fear or favour. Instead of defending what happened in Falkirk, Len McCluskey should be facing up to his responsibilities. He should not be defending the machine politics involving bad practice and malpractice that went on there, he should be facing up to it.
It’s wrong because we had members being signed up without their knowledge, bad practice, malpractice and frankly instead of defending that kind of thing Len McCluskey should be condemning it. Let nobody be in any doubt, there is only going to be one outcome to this: the Labour Party will act in a way that upholds the integrity of our party, the integrity of our party members and the integrity of ordinary trade union members. I will not allow the good name of the Labour Party to be undermined by the behaviour of a few individuals.
The question is how long Miliband is prepared to stand up to the unions for, as it will take more than one episode of muscle-flexing to overcome the ‘weak’ attack line from the Conservatives. They certainly don’t plan to halt their attacks any time soon. Grant Shapps has written to the Labour leader saying:
Dear Ed,
This week we have seen the full extent of Len McCluskey’s takeover of the Labour Party.
This is not simply an internal Labour Party matter. If you are asking Britain’s hardworking people to elect Labour in 2015, then they have a right to know who exactly they are voting for – Ed Miliband, or Len McCluskey.
Not only has Len McCluskey’s Unite union attempted to fix the Labour Party selection process in Falkirk, a leaked internal Unite document shows that Len McCluskey is in the process of fixing a further forty selections.
This morning, Angela Eagle – a member of your Shadow Cabinet – told BBC Radio 5 Live that it was ‘rubbish’ to suggest that Len McCluskey is busy fixing forty more Labour selections beyond Falkirk, despite the clear documented evidence to the contrary.
You have suspended the Unite candidate in Falkirk from the Labour Party.
· So will you suspend the named, Unite-backed candidates the union says it has placed in forty other seat selections in addition to Falkirk?
· Will you publish the internal report into the Falkirk selection fiasco as Tom Watson requests?
You have said that you are ending the practice under which unions can pay the first-year subscriptions of members they recruit to the Labour Party.
· So will you revoke the membership of those whose membership fee was paid by the Unite union in the last year?
· How much money has Labour received from Unite through the first-year subscription practice under your leadership?
You also have further serious questions to answer if you are to convince Britain’s hardworking people that you are capable of running the country:
· Unite has donated £8.4 million to Labour since the union installed you as leader. Will you now ensure Unite requires new union members to opt-in to its Political Fund, rather than opt-out?
· If you are serious about stopping Len McCluskey from pushing you around as he has been so far, will you refuse to take any more of his union’s money?
It is clear that you are not in control of the Labour Party.
If you cannot stand up to Len McCluskey, then it is clear that you are simply too weak to stand up for hardworking people and certainly too weak to run the country.
And with Unite in charge, the British people will conclude that all you offer our country is the same old Labour approach that got us into this mess in the first place – more spending, more borrowing and more debt. And it’s hardworking people who would pay the price with higher bills.
Yours ever,
Grant Shapps MP
Chairman of the Conservative Party
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