We should all support McCluskey over Labour ‘anti-Semitism’ payouts
Len McCluskey: if Labour won’t support left-wing policies, it won’t have left-wing funds.
Len McCluskey has the right idea: if Labour is going to waste its funds, then its funders should pull the plug on the party.
All left-thinking unions – and what’s the point of being in a union if it isn’t left-thinking and doesn’t look out for its members? – should agree.
New Labour under Blair, Brown and Miliband gave us 20 years in which members’ wishes were scorned for a bland, tepid watering-down of Tory policies. It would be an outrage if Labour’s supporters let Starmer take the party back to that.
So Unite is reviewing its political donations to the Labour Party – reconsidering whether it should continue to be Starmer’s largest backer, or indeed back him at all.
The decision came after Starmer decided to pay huge amounts of money to seven so-called whistleblowers who claimed the party had not handled anti-Semitism properly in a BBC documentary.
A leaked report to the party that Starmer failed to release later suggested that some of those involved had themselves held back the party’s response in a bid to smear then-leader Jeremy Corbyn and harm Labour’s chances of election with him in charge.
McCluskey has been clear:
“It’s an abuse of members’ money,” he said. “A lot of it is Unite’s money and I’m already being asked all kinds of questions by my executive. It’s as though a huge sign has been put up outside the Labour party with ‘queue here with your writ and get your payment over there’.”
Unite is Labour’s biggest donor, contributing £7 million to the party since the beginning of 2019. The loss of any of these funds would be a huge blow when it is rumoured that thousands of members are quitting every day in disgust at Starmer’s recent policy u-turns.
It seems clear to This Writer that McCluskey has chosen the right direction.
Starmer seems entirely unconcerned about losing members – in fact he seems to be pushing left-wingers out of the door.
But he needs money, and the party’s business backers – many of whom deserted Labour during the Corbyn years – are unlikely to be hurrying back if the party’s remaining financial base is dwindling.
It could be that the summer Parliamentary recess is the perfect time to judge Starmer’s Labour.
He has just ditched his flagship policy – the one he used to woo enough party voters to win himself the leadership: higher taxes on the wealthy.
Can he be persuaded to reverse that decision? What other decisions has he been planning to make and, if they harm the Left, will he be forced to reconsider?
If he doesn’t, he may find himself with very little Labour left to lead.
Source: Unite sounds warning over Labour antisemitism payouts | Labour | The Guardian
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
This was the last straw for me. Withdrawn my membership of the labour party. I joined under Corbyn but under starmer heading towards the wrong direction rapidly.
Would the Unions fund another party instead? Perhaps the SWP?
Defunding Labour for not being Labour seems sensible. Can’t imagine Tory donor supporting the Tories without getting what (s)he wants….
I quit the Party the day after Starmer beasted Formby…. Enough already.
Len McCluskey should end all donations to the Labour party, and help the likes of Chris Williamson to begin his socialist movement into a party, being as he was one of the most vocal Corbynites that was, as an MP, purged out of the party.
UNITE can join the Resistance Movement for free for now at –
https://resistfest.co.uk/join/?fbclid=IwAR0gSOk4O3yYYhdk7Nt-jmuDdbw1k87iiXWcJH6-jRBivRZ_ygwuaRJLTX0
Admin GREY SWANS pension group is campaigning for socialist pension policies into new socialist parties for 2024 general election, as they do not have pension policies.
Admin GREY SWANS is amongst the state pension experts, us 1950s ladies, taught by being 3.8m first victims of pension age rise in state pension history (begun 1908, first payment 1909).
Blair was foretold by his own government actuaries back in 2005 that pension age rise would result in a high increase of people long dead before retirement.
This came to pass from 2011, which saw the highest increase of early death of women aged in our 50s and 60s, of 1950s then 1960s women (latter now turning 60 so continuing in early death) which means life expectancy of assumption of continued life from age 50 to 70 ended from 2011. Made worse by Covid19 pandemic.
Blair, Brown and Miliband were not a wishy washy version of Tories, but hard right.
Right wing led Labour betrayed the working class Grey Vote all the way back to 1978 under Callaghan, which still has an effect on the new flat rate state pension.
Real Labour under Foot had manifesto pledge of pension age 60 men and women and living amount of decent state pension in 1983, but right wing Labour also threw that election.
Jeremy Corbyn had said pension age 60 men and women and decent state pension all his career as MP. If he had managed to get past right wing Labour those pension policies, he would have been Prime Minister since 2017 election.
Right wing Labour is a greater enemy of working class Grey Vote than even Tories and Lib Dems (a right wing Labour party).
Stammer hasn’t any red blood only blue and backing him will only bring heartache to the peasants but denying the party funds is a way forward I hope hasten their departure but then these creatures can’t take a hint