Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The unravelling of the left continues as RMT president joins the Greens

Socialism fever is spreading. This time last year, Ed Miliband looked to be on course for 10 Downing St for the simple reason that the right in Britain had been split (by Ukip) while the left stood united for the first time since 1983. Lefty LibDems had returned to Labour and it seemed that Miliband was the bad leader of a massive block of votes. Now, things have changed. The left is unravelling too: Labour is losing votes to the SNP in the north and the Greens in the south.

That’s why the Greens’ recruitment of a top trade union official is significant. Peter Pinkney, president of the RMT union, says he’s joining the Greens because they are more left-wing than Labour. I’d certainly agree with that: as a leader in the Spectator argued, to call the Greens socialist is an insult to socialism. But not an insult to the far-left RMT, the late Bob Crow’s union, which specialised in holding Londoners to ransom with frequent tube strikes.

The RMT and Labour fell out a decade ago, when it was disaffiliated for supporting the Scottish Socialist Party.

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