Cameron cuts off Labour funding
Party could lose tens of millions as law governing union donations is reformed
DAVID CAMERON has targeted Labour’s reliance on the unions as he used his Queen’s Speech to unveil new laws which are likely to slash the party’s funding.
After leading the Conservative Party to its first majority for 23 years, Mr Cameron flagged legislation that could result in donations to Labour falling by tens of millions of pounds every year.
In a surprise move the Conservatives introduced a law to reform the way union activists pay a “political levy” to Labour. Under the plans, union members will have to opt-in to paying an annual amount to Labour, rather than opting out as at present.
In Northern Ireland, which has an opt-in system, fewer than 40 per cent of union members chose to pay into the political fund. Under the current system applied in the rest of the UK only 8.8 per cent of union members opt out.
The unions reacted with anger to the measures, accusing Mr Cameron of a “shamelessly partisan attack” that would “take Britain back to the Twenties”.
Labour sources described the pledge as a “stitch-up”. It came as Mr Cameron used his first Queen’s Speech as Prime Minister of a majority government to drive through reforms to tax, welfare and Britain’s anti-terror laws. He said that the Tories had a “golden opportunity” to back working people in Britain.
The Queen’s Speech contained 26 Bills, including laws to cut taxes for 30million people, reduce the benefits cap from £26,000 a year to £23,000, and a pledge to increase free childcare for working families.
There were also measures to reduce the “incentives” for foreign migrants to come to the UK. Mr Cameron put at the heart of the package his pledge to hold an in-out referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. Downing Street also announced that people who want Britain to stay in the EU will be able to campaign for a “yes” vote in the in-out referendum, which Mr Cameron indicated he wants to happen in “extra-quick time”.
Britons will be asked in the referendum if they wish to “remain a member of the European Union”.
In other developments: ŠGoogle and Facebook will be forced to give British spies access to encrypted conversations of suspected terrorists and criminals. ŠMr Cameron’s pledge to scrap the Human Rights Act suffered a blow as Alex Salmond said the SNP will block proposals for a British Bill of Rights. ŠCompanies employing foreign workers will be charged a “visa levy” to fund apprenticeships. ŠArrested suspects will be allowed to be held on police bail for only 28 days before they must be charged or released.
The last time the Conservatives changed the law on union funding was in 1927, in the Trade Disputes and Trade Union Act. Clement Attlee’s Labour administration repealed the Act 19 years later. Unions currently collect millions of pounds from their members every year for political funds. The Unite union gave Labour £19million in the last parliament.
Details from 26 unions in 2013 showed that around 4.8 million members contributed to a political fund, with fewer than 850,000 not contributing. A total of 13 unions are affiliated to Labour, including Unite, Unison and the GMB. In 2013, Unite received £7.4 million from 1.1million of its members for its political fund.
Members of unions affiliated to Labour typically pay a few pounds a year, raising millions for the party.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “Our approach is that there should be a conscious decision of opting in.
“An opt-in already exists in Northern Ireland. So it is not an alien concept. Clearly some union leaders may not be very happy about it but that doesn’t mean it’s not right.” A Unite spokesman said: “The Tories are taking Britain back to the Twenties with this shamelessly partisan attack on the funding of the opposition party.” Paul Kenny, GMB general-secretary, said: “It is not sus- tainable to allow the elite and companies unfettered and unlimited rights to fund the Tory Party while shackling the bodies that have funded the political opposition to them for more than a century.