Labour to take ‘bold look’ at union links
This year’s conference season will not see politicians disappearing into “smoke filled rooms” to make deals with union chiefs, the business secretary has said.
Responding to a warning from the head of the UK’s biggest trade union not to sideline the role of members in formulating Labour policy, John Hutton said the party would be “brave and bold” in overhauling its links to the unions.
Speaking to GMTV’s Sunday programme on the eve of the TUC congress, Mr Hutton said the relationship between the party and unions was “not set in concrete” and leaders would have to consider how it could “best work” in the “modern times we live in”.
He said: “We don’t do that by going into little huddles and smoke-filled rooms and making deals late at night at party conference.
“That’s the old way of doing politics and we have got to get away from that.”
Mr Hutton said it would not best serve the interests of workers to assume “everything has to be set in concrete”.
He added: “These are different times in our politics. People are looking to do politics in a different way and I think one of the challenges for all political parties is to open up the debate internally and with the country about how we make policy in the future.”
Senior Labour officials increasingly appear to be gearing up for a battle with the unions, as leaders remain opposed to plans to change the party’s constitution to reduce the role of the unions in making policy.
Derek Simpson, joint leader of Unite, the UK’s largest trade union, said the unions’ influence within Labour had already been diluted consistently since the 1950s.
Gordon Brown risks defeat if he fails to engage with the party’s core support, Mr Simpson said.
With party membership falling, he argued it was now time for Mr Brown to shake up the party, the BBC reports.
Last week, Brenda Barber, general secretary of the TUC, warned Mr Brown he could pay the “political price” for the way he has handled public sector pay deals.
Public sector workers have complained the government’s decision to stagger a recommended 2.5 per cent pay rise amounts to a below-inflation pay cut.
