From today’s Financial Times:
When Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, made a plea for Labour to discover a new vision and strategy last month it appeared to mark a watershed in heightened tensions between the party and the unions.
Mr Barber, the figurehead of the union movement, is well-known as a party loyalist who rarely speaks out of turn…
Derek Simpson, joint head of Unite, is another voice in the union movement now ramping up the pressure by demanding a clear sense of purpose from the Labour leadership.
There is agreement across the ideological spectrum within Labour that the party must reconnect with the electorate; they are just not entirely sure how.
Even within the unions there is a sense of “disgruntlement” with the party, according to Mr Simpson. “Lots of members will say they were Labour voters but haven’t made up their minds and don’t know who to vote for next time,” he says.
Another Labour figure says there were always tiffs between the unions and the party that they set up just over 100 years ago. But he said the bad feeling was worsening. “It is now being felt through the grassroots, it is not a disagreement between some general secretaries and the government over a certain bill or how much money should go into the NHS. The discontent has broken out of the Westminster village and into the real world.” Union members increasingly are voting for the Liberal Democrats, British National party or even the Tories – their traditional enemy – as Labour’s star fades, he says.
You can read the full piece here.
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3 Comments
Divorce – it jolly well should be! I cannot understand why the TU movement continues to prop up Labour – it always strikes me as a reversal of the mother rejecting the child – in this case the child has rejected the mother! This is why I despair that we are not offering a real alternative to Labour on issues such as marketisation of public services.
Sorry, the resurgence of the Tories, no matter how based on emptiness it is, means that the TU-Labour alliance will only get stronger in the future.
“They are voting Lib Dem or BNP”
Well, so are lots of disgruntled Labour voters. It doesn’t mean that come the general election they’ll be happy to see David Cameron walk through the door of 10 Downing Street.
The TUs will do everything they can to avoid Labour being in opposition for a generation.
When it comes to election time, the unions will always back Labour over other parties. Even when they agree with other parties and disagree with Labour.