Backlash over Labour Party chairman’s campaign video
LABOUR has been criticised for releasing a video accusing the Tories of “stealing the miners’ pension fund”, which features a party frontbencher who received £165,000 from a miners’ union he ran.
Ian Lavery, the Labour Party chairman, appears in a campaign video which promises to “right” a “historic wrong” by giving retired miners more of the surplus from the pension scheme.
The video refers to a continuing row over the amount of money taken by the Government from the pot, which mining community representatives say has left them with an unfair cut.
Labour has promised to end the current 50:50 split and introduce new sharing arrangements so that 90 per cent goes to miners and their families.
However, the decision to put Mr Lavery in the video prompted a widespread backlash on social media. It was pointed out that, as president of the National Union of Mineworkers (Northumberland Area), Mr Lavery had received £165,000 for his role running the 10-member trade union. A report published by the trade union regulator in 2017 found that he had received a £72,500 loan from the union to purchase a property, which was written off 13 years later in 2007.
The watchdog began examining the relationship between Mr Lavery and the union following investigations by The Sunday Times and the BBC. It also found that he received £89,887 in “termination payments” from the union when he left to stand as an MP, although he later repaid an amount disputed between the parties.
The union accepted that it had overpaid by £30,600 but Mr Lavery disputed £10,600 of it and volunteered to repay £15,000, according to the report.
No further action was taken by the regulator and Mr Lavery has always strongly denied any wrongdoing.