Cold water poured on Miliband’s ‘Clause 4’ moment
By Peter Wozniak
Speculation that Ed Miliband’s plans to limit individual political donations would mean a weakening of Labour’s ties with trades unions has been doused.
The Labour leader is currently engaging in a lengthy review of both its policy and funding arrangements. The party’s outgoing general secretary Ray Collins had implied Labour would call for an extremely stringent cap on donations of just £500.
He told the committee on standards in public life: “While some argue for a cap of £50,000, a much lower cap of around £500 would be more equitable, democratic and less susceptible to avoidance.”
The announcement raised speculation that Mr Miliband was severing the party’s dependency on union funding, which accounts for the vast majority of Labour’s income.
But reports today appeared to pour cold water on that suggestion, with the suggestion that such a cap would apply only to individuals and companies.
Given that union members make donations to the Labour in small amounts, often as part of their membership fees, the cap would not radically alter Labour’s funding structure – but would be deeply unsettling to their political opponents.
The Conservatives favour a far higher cap of £50,000, as they are reliant on large donations from individuals and businessmen.
Liberal Democrats, because of their lack of a prominent source of donations, favour a system involving greater state funding of political parties.
Other suggestions that Mr Miliband was considering altering the Labour leadership election structure to give a quarter of votes to non-member avowed party supporters -which would dilute the influence of union members – remain unconfirmed.
