Now two-thirds of Labour MPs are backed by Red Len’s union

THE full extent of Len McCluskey’s stranglehold over the Labour Party was revealed last night.

A new analysis has found that almost two thirds of the party’s newly-elected MPs in the Commons are sponsored by the hardleft Unite union.

One of the party’s new Unite-linked MPs Cat Smith, the member for Lancaster and Fleetwood, has urged militants to break the law by holding ‘wildcat strikes’ if the Conservatives honour their pledge to make it harder for essential services workers to take industrial action.

Another, Chris Matheson, new MP for City of Chester, has branded Margaret Thatcher as vile and praised Hugo Chavez, the hardline socialist former president of Venezuela.

Out of 232 Labour MPs returned last week, 147 are members of Unite or have received donations from the union – 63 per cent. This compares to the 51 per cent of Labour MPs listed as members of Unite in 2010 – a total of 130 out of 258. Conservatives say the analysis shows that, whichever candidate wins the Labour leadership, he will still be in charge of a phalanx of MPs beholden to Unite’s militant general secretary.

Tories say Unite’s degree of influence is payback for the huge sums it has given to the party since 2010 – £14.3million.

The huge number of Unite-backed MPs could make it very hard for Blairite candidates to get enough support to stand in the leadership contest.

Candidates need the support of 35 MPs to get on the ballot paper, but only 85 Labour members are not linked to the union – mean- ing it could be hard for two centrist candidates to get nominated. The candidate most favoured by the unions is believed to be Andy Burnham, t he f ormer Health Secretary.

The Mail revealed during the election campaign that more than half of Labour candidates in winnable seats were sponsored by Unite. Analysis after the election shows that of the 51 new faces voted in last week, no fewer than 24 were linked to Mr McCluskey’s union. Only two had no links with any union.

Of the 232 Labour MPs now in the House of Commons, only six have no links with any union at all.

Michael Ellis, Tory MP for Northampton North, said: ‘The same old Labour faces are throwing their hats in the ring to take over from Ed Miliband. But there’s one thing they cannot change: Labour are still reliant on their union paymasters.’