Red Len’s plan to sell off £6million Unite mansion to China...for £21million
LABOUR’S union paymasters have held talks to sell a historic mansion to communist China for an ‘incredible’ £21million – more than three times the asking price.
Left-wing Unite, which gives £3.5million a year to Ed Miliband’s party, owns Esher Place in Surrey.
Set in eight acres of grounds, the grand country house lies on the site of a building where Sir Francis Drake’s family lived.
An earlier building on the site was owned by the Church and Cardinal Wolsey was kept under house arrest in its gatehouse after falling out with Henry VIII.
Britain’s biggest trade union uses
‘Ludicrous to sell jewel in the crown’
the mansion’s ornate rooms for conferences and training and Labour leader Miliband has visited it on a party away-day.
But although Unite thinks the Grade II listed property is worth only £6.5million, and is running it at a loss, the statecontrolled Bank of China has offered three times as much, raising questions as to the deal between them.
Secret papers seen by The Mail on Sunday reveal staff of the world’s fifthbiggest financial institution have visited Esher Place a dozen times and made increasingly generous offers to buy it.
The move would improve Unite’s accounts and also give the Chinese an impressive base as they expand their investments in the UK.
‘Red’ Len McCluskey, the
hardliner who runs the union behind some of the country’s most disruptive strikes, told comrades at last month’s policy conference in Liverpool that they must consider the ‘incredible’ offer to ease their financial pressures.
But delegates warned it would be ‘ludicrous’ to sell Unite’s ‘jewel in the crown’, and have raised questions about their leaders’ links with Communist China.
David Morris, Conservative MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, said last night: ‘What a tidy food chain. Communist China swelling the coffers of militant Len McCluskey, which will give him even more power over weak Ed Miliband.’
A union insider said: ‘Why are the Chinese offering so much money? That’s the big question. The union isn’t short of cash but all of a sudden there appears to be a big rush to sell this place.’
The final decision was due to be taken next month but last night the Bank of China claimed it had pulled out of the deal.
A spokesman for Bank of China’s property adviser CBRE said: ‘The bank will not be buying Unite’s property under any circumstances.’