Cameron to take on the unions by scrapping automatic funding of Labour

[Hopeless Romantic]

David Cameron will move to scrap the automatic union funding of the Labour party if he wins the general election, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

The Conservative leader is planning the move as part of a drive to make political funding more transparent.

But it will spark anger from the big Labour-supporting unions and Gordon Brown who is now heavily reliant on money from the unions to fund the party.

The news came as Mr Cameron's deputy William Hague warns in an interview with this newspaper that Britain would slide to “ruin” and become a bit part player in the world if Gordon Brown wins the next election.

Mr Hague urges voters not to let Britain sink into longterm decline by allowing Labour to win a fourth term in Government.

Currently, unions only need to ask members every 10 years if they want to contribute to their political funds, which also includes spending on campaigning and lobbying.

Around £8million a year is channelled through the political funds to Labour party coffers in this way.
Under the Tory plans, union members would have to choose to contribute to the political fund every time they pay their annual subscription.

Asking individual union members to tick a box supporting Labour every year was a key sticking point in talks to reform party funding which collapsed amid acrimony two years ago.

Mr Cameron has pointed out that many union members are not Labour supporters and yet are often unwilling contributors to the party.

The Conservative leader is expecting a backlash from some public sector unions who are angry at his planned cuts in parts of Whitehall.

However, he has stood out among Tory leaders of recent years in having opened dialogue with the union barons.

Mr Cameron has even appointed a former Labour MEP Richard Balfe, to act as his personal envoy with the unions.

Mr Balfe has been coordinating meetings between senior Tories and union barons. Last night Mr Balfe said: "The meetings with unions are going very well. Virtually the whole shadow Cabinet is involved."
He believes that the moderate unions accept that cuts have to be made to start paying off the deficit and getting the economy back on its feet.

Last month Mr Cameron said that he would not be afraid to change trade union law if he felt the unions were opposing his reform plans on politically motivated grounds.

A senior Tory source confirmed that the issue was being looked at and that a simple change to the way the union levy worked was clearly an attract option.

While Labour accuses the Conservatives over its funding from big business and donors, Labour's funding is now overwhelmingly from the trade unions.

The super-union Unite is particularly close to Gordon Brown.

Campaigners for more transparency over political funding welcomed the plans. Peter Facey, a director of Unlock Democracy, said: “We welcome this. The more transparency there is in political parties’ funding the better.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/conservative/7223662/David-Cameron-to-take-on-the-unions-by-scrapping-automatic-funding-of-Labour.html

[non sociopath skin]

1. ... But, of course, the Fat Cats will still be able to give as much of our money as they like ...

... to the Tories.

The Skin

[tjwmason]

3. But if they stopped that

Then we might be forced to have campaigns based on presentation and explanation of policies rather than expensive advertising and photo-shopped pictures.

[dipsydoodle]

2. I think this has been on the cards for some time

there was a discussion a while back on tv on the subject of this allied to the fact that Labour are likely to fail miserably in the next elections. Put the two together and they could prove to be the start of the beginning of the end of the Labour Party as we know it.

[fedsron2us]

4. Tory wish fulfilment

The Unions and their members are already thoroughly pissed off with the Labour Party, and some are even contemplating restricting their support to specific candidates. All Unions already have to get their members to sign an opt in to the system if they want to contribute to the Labour Party or to campaign on matters outside the Unions immediate remit. Most do it willingly and will continue to do so no matter how many times the bosses party polls them on the issue.

I happen to agree that the current Labour party is doomed. However, I think that the Tories may find any victory Phyrric. The truth is that the masses now thoroughly despise politicians of all hue so whichever party wins the next election (I think it might be closer than some think) are going to get a honeymoon period of about 2 minutes.