Who owns Labour? Unite turns on the Right

Ed Miliband’s speech today isn’t an attempt to close down the row over Falkirk, but to get back on top of the issue, rather than appearing to be bounced along by events. What it will do is open a huge row with the union bosses: one the Labour leader needs to be seen to have won at the end of it all. Here is a briefing on what to expect from Miliband. The Tories are pleased this morning that Len McCluskey has written in this morning’s Guardian that ‘switching to an “opt-in” for the political levy wouldn’t work… would debilitate unions’ ability to speak for our members and would further undermine unions’ status as voluntary, and self-governing, organisations’. Billy Hayes of the Communication Workers Union, meanwhile, criticised the plans for primaries, and said the reforms were ‘about dog whistles’ when he appeared on the Today programme. This means, the Conservatives argue, that they are dead in the water before Miliband has even given the speech.