GMB slashes Labour Party affiliation fees from £1.2 million to £150,000

The GMB has announced this morning that as of January 1st 2014, they will be paying £150,000 a year in affiliation fees to the Labour Party – rather than the £1.2 million that the union currently pays. That represents the union affiliating 50,000 members to the Labour Party – rather than the 420,000 who are currently affiliated by the union. In a statement this morning, the GMB said:

“GMB CEC expressed considerable regret about the apparent lack of understanding the proposal mooted by Ed Miliband will have on the collective nature of trade union engagement with the Labour Party.

A further source of considerable regret to the CEC is that the party that had been formed to represent the interest of working people in this country intends to end collective engagement of trade unions in the party they helped to form.

The CEC also decided to scale down by one third the level of its national political fund.”

That’s going to have a considerable impact on Labour’s spending power approaching the next election – so will other unions follow suit? Or will they wait for the outcome of the Collins Review and the “Special Conference” next year.

Update: A senior Labour source tells us:

“Our biggest financial contribution comes from small donations and members. While we welcome all support this is a matter for the GMB.”

And Tom Watson has just published this on his blog:

Like many members of the Labour Party I’ve always taken comfort in the knowledge that I’m part of a movement, not just a political party.

There are many people I know, some in commerce and executive jobs, who are in the Labour Party because at the start of their working lives, a trade unionist in their workplace convinced them to join. Some are now even employers but for them the retention of a party card is an expression of a desire to remain part of that great movement of Labour. Some may call this nostalgia and it is often dismissed by those who always wanted to break the link. Yet this force – solidarity – is one of the defining characteristics that distinguishes Labour from say, the Lib Dems, the Tories or the SNP.

If this is the beginning of the end of that historic link, it is a very serious development that threatens a pillar of our democracy that has endured for over one hundred years. Some will scoff but they are fools to do so. That party card stands for something more than confirmation that an annual direct debit has been processed.

Over the next year we have been asked to consider a change to the constitution of the Labour party, though no detailed proposals have been revealed. I’m not opposed to reform but I will fight very hard to retain the fundamental link between the party and Labour movement.

More on this as we have it…