Party reform provides an opportunity for Ed Miliband – and trade unions too

Whatever the rationale is for Ed Miliband’s party/union reforms, it can’t be Falkirk anymore. The party’s statement on Friday evening that there had been no wrongdoing by any individual or organisation in the party’s Falkirk selection appeared to knock the key reasoning for Miliband’s party reform plans on the head.

Yet although Miliband and the party still have questions to answer over what happened in Falkirk and since, it’s clear that his party reforms are still happening.

It’s been notable that whilst many trade unionists have come forward this weekend and criticised Miliband’s reform proposals, few have called for the process of reform to be scrapped outright. That’s significant for two reasons.

Firstly, because Ed Miliband cannot be seen to row back on party reform, having staked his leadership and his credibility on making significant changes. If Miliband were to turn around and say “actually, there will be no reforms, sorry about that”, his leadership would be effectively (and quite possibly actually) finished. Despite the anger that many in the union movement feel over Miliband’s reform plans (they largely feel they were hasty and ill-thought through) few want him to fall on his sword.

But there’s another compelling second reason why many trade unionists have been reticent in calling for Miliband to drop plans to reform the union link – it’s that, as it currently stands, the link doesn’t always work for trade unions. Trade unionists often feel – and are justified in feeling – that they provide significant support for the party and get relatively little in return when the time comes to write a manifesto and decide on governing priorities.

So, although we’ve arrived at party/union reform in a fairly dreadful way – allegations, accusations, confusion, withdrawn accusations, acrimony – the process does still provide an opportunity for both the unions and Miliband to remake and strength the union link. That should be what Ed Miliband is saying – publicly and privately – to trade unionists when he’s in Bournemouth for TUC conference tomorrow. There will, of course, be a temptation to turn this into a confrontation and gain points from the media (somehow) by escalating the current row. But what is needed instead is a more mature discussion than the one we’ve had so far.

One of the key strengths that both Labour politicians and trade unionists are meant to share is the power of negotiation. It is not impossible to find a solution that strengthens the union link, but also allows Ed Miliband to build a bigger, broader, more open movement around the Labour Party.

It should not be beyond the powers of negotiation of either side to bring that about.