Union tells Labour: Select our man or we’ll stop funding you

LABOUR’S union backers are threatening to withdraw their funding for the party’s election campaign unless Len McCluskey’s top aide is parachuted into a safe seat.

The union baron known as ‘Red Len’ is trying to stitch up the selection of his bag carrier Daniel Carden in Liverpool Walton.

The prized seat, where Labour has a majority of more than 7,700, became vacant when Steve Rotheram was elected Liverpool’s Metro Mayor yesterday.

Party members have urged leader Jeremy Corbyn to give the seat to a local candidate, but Labour sources say Mr McCluskey’s union, Unite, is threatening to pull its campaign funding unless Mr Carden is gifted the seat. Liverpool councillors and party members yesterday presented Mr Corbyn with a petition warning against the selection of any candidate who was not local. Usually, the local party would choose the candidate but the snap general election means a panel from Labour’s ruling national executive committee can do it.

Mr McCluskey was last month re-elected as Unite’s general secretary following a bitter leadership battle.

A Unite spokesman last night dismissed claims the union was threatening to withhold funding. He said: ‘Selections are a matter for the Labour Party and its NEC.’