The Labour Party in the UK was in crisis yesterday, as its biggest union donor UNITE led by Len McCluskey declared that he had “no trust” in the party’s handling of the growing internal fracas over allegations of corrupt candidate selection in Falkirk, Scotland, calling Labour’s own internal inquiry into the affair a “disgrace”.
Written by Chris White
His hard-hitting statement came just as Labour MP Tom Watson resigned from the shadow cabinet, following Labour Party leader Ed Miliband’s dismissal of calls for an independent inquiry on the candidate election scandal in Falkirk.
It is alleged that Unite attempted to fill the candidate pool with up to 100 union members in an effort to compete with Blairite candidates, approved by the Labour Party leadership.
Following the allegations Ms. Karie Murphy, who was Watson’s preferred Labour Party candidate, has been suspended, with the Labour Party’s Falkirk Chairman, Stephen Deans, taking control of the constituency’s party selection process.
Miliband has also responded by closing down the scheme under which unions are able to independently sign up members to the Labour Party and pay party dues on their behalf.
Watson’s resignation, which was first rejected by Miliband, came after the Opposition Leader refused to launch an independent inquiry into the scandal, claiming that it was an internal party matter.
Calls were made for an independent investigation after the Miliband’s internal investigation report suggested wrongdoing on the part of union bosses.
Responding to the report in a letter addressed to the Labour Party’s General Secretary, McCluskey, (Watson’s former housemate) Unite’s “General Secretary” said: “The report has been used to smear Unite and its members. It is noteworthy that members of the shadow cabinet have been in the lead in initiating this attack.” – Adding: “The mishandling of this investigation has been a disgrace. I, however, am obliged to uphold the integrity of Unite, and I can no longer do so on the basis of going along with the activities of a Labour party administration in which I can place no trust.”
Defending his actions, Miliband issued a statement of his own saying: “I am not going to have abuse of membership procedures and parliamentary selections in my party, and that is very clear, and I want to be clear about that to the leadership of Unite the Union in particular.”
Supporting Miliband was the Labour Party’s Shadow Leader of The House of Commons, Angela Eagle, who said on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: “It’s up to the leader of the Labour Party, not anyone else, to decide to take the action that we’ve taken to ensure that our rules are followed.
People can have an opinion about what action to take, but the leader and the general secretary of our party have made these decisions. The NEC (Labour’s executive body) will be looking at this too. Outside of that, it’s nobody’s duty but ours to deal with this issue. We will not tolerate the kind of behaviour we have seen in Falkirk, whoever is responsible.”
Throughout the British media the press have been having a field day over the affair, with many on the government benches making the most of the scandal, in which the Labour Party’s neo-Blairite leadership appears to be acting to suppress its own grass-roots institutions.
Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps, mocked Watson’s resignation as a “clear vote of no confidence in Ed Miliband’s weak leadership from the man he brought in to run his campaign. But this still doesn’t change the fact that Len McCluskey’s Unite union is taking over the Labour Party”.
The Falkirk constituency was made available when MP Eric Joyce was force out of the Party in disgrace after repeatedly assaulting other House of Commons members on several separate occasions, at least one of which took place in the House of Commons bar where he had to be restrained.
Tom Watson has previous. He was involved in the Damian McBride “Smeargate” scandal under Gordon Brown’s leadership and he resigned. There are many in Britain who want to see Watson fall much harder and much further. Indeed, the Unite scandal engulfing Labour now is just the beginning of a summer of Conservative content while Labour grapples with its far left, embodied by Watson, which will now bring the party and Ed Miliband to their knees.
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