Latest editorial
LABOUR will lose almost a third of its entire budget if “partisan” curbs on union funding are “smuggled” through Parliament, its general secretary Iain McNicol warned yesterday.
He told the first session of a special Lords committee set up to consider party funding changes within the Trade Union Bill that they would have “significant consequences” for Labour and British democracy.
Plans to make union members opt-in to trade union political funds — by post — would lead to a 90 per cent drop in the number of workers affiliated to Labour, he predicted.
Tony Benn’s constituents chose him by an overwhelming majority — but because he had inherited a peerage, parliamentary rules declared their choice invalid, writes MAT COWARD
Labour’s long-promised Act has scraped through the Lords. While the law marks a step forward, its lack of collective rights leaves workers short-changed — and sets the stage for a renewed campaign for an Employment Rights Bill #2, argues TONY BURKE
It is rather strange that Labour continues to give prestigious roles to inappropriate, controversy-mired businessmen who are also major Tory donors. What could Labour possibly be hoping to get out of it, asks SOLOMON HUGHES
Labour must not allow unelected members of the upper house to erode a single provision of the Employment Rights Bill, argues ANDY MCDONALD MP