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Ed Miliband pledges to end Labour’s ‘machine politics’ – Media roundup: July 9th, 2013

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Ed Miliband pledges to end Labour’s ‘machine politics’ – but he’s warned he could turn McCluskey into Scargill

Ed Miliband will set out potentially the biggest changes to the Labour-union relationship since the party’s formation in 1900 when he proposes on Tuesdaythat non-party members should be able to vote in party elections, and that its three million union political levy payers can only be involved in the party if they choose to. Responding to allegations of voting abuse in Falkirk by the party’s largest union affiliate, Unite, the Labour leader will say that his reforms, due to be outlined in a speech, mean turning the party’s back on unpopular “machine politics”. But the proposals to recast the union link put Miliband’s leadership on the line and may be criticised as a diversion of Labour’s energies less than two years ahead of a general election. Miliband will argue the proposals are not designed to break the link with the unions, but instead reinvigorate politics. –Guardian

Party sources warned that the changes, intended to clean up the selection of candidates for Westminster, would hit Labour’s finances and face opposition from unions. The reforms may take “years” to introduce and there is no guarantee that they will be in place in time for the next general election in 2015, senior figures believe. Labour is also expected to decline an offer from Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, to help write a new law to enforce the changes to Labour’s trade union links. – Telegraph

Union boss Len McCluskey could become the “new Arthur Scargill”, Ed Miliband has been warned. The Labour leader will today move to loosen trade unions’ grip on his party with a major rules shake-up. But it is merely a “sticking plaster”, according to one Labour MP on the right of the party, who said Mr Miliband should have demanded Mr McCluskey’s head in the wake of the Falkirk scandal. Comparing the Unite boss to the former National Union of Mineworkers chief, the MP added: “The ­Conservatives will turn Len McCluskey into the new Arthur Scargill – his picture will be on every Tory election leaflet.” – Mirror

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