Portrait of the week | 11 July 2013

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There was a fine game of hunt-the-issue over the process to find a replacement, as parliamentary candidate in Falkirk, for the Labour MP Eric Joyce (who had decided not to stand again after being convicted of assaulting a Labour whip in the Strangers’ Bar). The union Unite was accused by Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour party, of signing up its members to the Falkirk constituency Labour party without their knowledge. Unite’s chosen candidate Karie Murphy had been the officer manager of Tom Watson MP. Mr Watson resigned as Labour’s national election co-ordinator. The next day, Mr Miliband referred the imbroglio at Falkirk to the Scottish police, but not before a Tory MP, Henry Smith, had written to the Chief Constable alleging fraud. Len McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite, denounced Labour’s investigation of the affair as a ‘stitch-up’ and condemned ‘Blairite critics’. Mr Miliband then made a speech calling for an end to the automatic levy of payments to Labour by members of affiliated unions.