LITTLEJOHN

OUTGOING Left-wing Unite boss Len McCluskey’s legacy, apart from hobbling Labour for a generation by backing O.J. Corbyn and Momentum, is a £98 million white elephant in Birmingham.

The magnificent new hotel and conference complex was originally scheduled to cost members of Britain’s biggest union just £7million. Questions are now being asked about how the final bill spiralled out of control so spectacularly. The main contract was awarded to a building company owned by Paul Flanagan, a friend of Red Len and a fellow Scouser. A firm run by David Anderson, son of former Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson, was in charge of health and safety.

Mr Flanagan and the Andersons have since been arrested on suspicion of bribery relating to building projects, which they deny. There is no suggestion of any illegality involving the Birmingham scheme or McCluskey. Unite describes Red Len’s Folly as a ‘world-class facility’.

It does, however, seem woefully short of business right now, with losses reportedly being underwritten by the union for the next two years.

So it is curious that having blown the thick end of 100 mill on the place, Lenny isn’t utilising it to the full. His union’s annual conference this year is pencilled in for Liverpool. And Unite Executive Council in June is taking place not in Brum but at the plush Metropole Hotel in Brighton.

Still, why should Lenny care? He’s due to retire soon. Perhaps he just fancies holding his farewell party beside the seaside. Or maybe he’s a big Quadrophenia fan (see elsewhere) and is planning to go out with a bang by driving his once-proud union off a cliff.