The story on Labour and the Unions that the right wing press missed

There was some mild hysteria in the Telegraph this morning as the paper that loves to hate the unions noted the (not at all) shocking news that 23 of the 42 candidates selected by Labour so far have “links to unions”.

You do shock me – was the name “Labour” not a teeny tiny clue?

Soon after the Daily Mail joined in, clutching at their pearls as they noted:

“16 won their candidacies with direct backing from unions while a further seven are union members”

Or to put it another way – less than half of all Labour PPCs were directly supported at selection by an affiliated union, which actually sounds quite low to me (I think it’s higher than that).

Yet if they’re concerned that 23 out of 42 PPCs have “links to unions” (defined as being a union member), both the Mail and the Telegraph should really read the Labour Party rule book, specifically Chapter 2A, Part 6b, which states that party members must:

“if applicable, be a member of a trade union affiliated to the Trade Union Congress or considered by the NEC as a bona fide trade union and contribute to the political fund of that union (a person who does not contribute to the political fund of her/his trade union may not be an individual member of the party)”

So technically, every Labour Party member who is able to join a recognised union is meant to do so – just so that they can remain a party member – never mind stand for parliament. That means half of Labour’s PPCs being union members isn’t that surprising at all.

Labour has links to the trade unions. Always has done. And party members have always been expected to be Trade Unionists too. That’s neither shocking, nor news.