Woodley says Unite will support candidate who opposes anti-union laws

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

Tony Woodley said today that Unite should only support a candidate for the Labour leadership who pledges to scrap anti-union laws and called on the Labour Party to refind a “purpose in life”. Woodley also said today that he was pleased that the leadership candidates had started talking about the “illegal and unjust war” in Iraq.

Speaking on the first day of the union’s policy conference in Manchester, Woodley said:

“So I want to make one thing clear to all Labour leadership contenders. Our vote should only go to the candidate who pledges – unequivocally, no mealy-mouthed phrases – to do what Labour was set up to do: create a level playing field at work, and scrap the anti-union laws.”

He continued:

“We need our party back. For too long we have been told that we are a drag on its electoral prospects, that the unions have to be neither seen nor heard. But it wasn’t the unions that wrecked the economy, it was the filthy rich that Peter Mandelson was intensely relaxed about…So when I say we need to take the Labour party back, I do not mean take it back for the trade unions in a narrow sense, I mean take it back for working people. For social justice, for the poor, the pensioners, the unemployed and all those with no other party to turn to…”

Several of the leadership candidates have already spoken about the need to reconnect with the unions. Ed Miliband said at his launch speech “the trade union link matters because it is our link to working people in this country and it is very important”, while David Miliband has said Labour must “engage “far, far better with those three million trade unionists who choose to pay the political levy in what I believe is a positive act of democratic participation.” Ed Balls said when he launched his leadership campaign that “I think we all need to do that – not just people putting themselves up [for the leadership], not just trade unions, but party members, everyone building from our base”.

With some two million members, Unite makes up the largest of the affiliated organisations who can vote in the Labour leadership eleciton. Woodley’s full speech to the Unite policy conference can be found here.