Why Ed Miliband should stop paying his union dues

Ed Miliband’s relationship with Len McCluskey was defined in a brief camera shot at the Labour party conference in 2010. After praising trade unions, Miliband added that he would have no patience with ‘waves of irresponsible strikes’. Several rows back, McCluskey, who three days earlier had helped Ed defeat his brother David in the leadership election, was filmed shaking his head and shouting ‘Rubbish!’ Given that McCluskey’s Unite union pays most of Labour’s bills, his word was seen as a veto. This was the new deal.

McCluskey and his colleagues bestowed their patronage upon Ed not because they thought he would be a strong leader, but for rather the opposite reason: they expected acquiescence. In many ways, Ed has justified their faith. He damns any attempt to rein in public expenditure as heartless Tory cuts — even now, when total spending is not actually being cut. He has set Labour’s face against the school and health reforms it championed seven years ago.