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Is the Labour Party the party of labour?
The unions might appear to have a huge amount of power over the Labour Party, but in practice, as Blair showed, they do not. Working-class politics cannot be restricted to changing that, writes ANDREW MURRAY

SOMETIMES it is worth stress-testing received wisdom and long-held political assumptions.

One such is the argument that Labour is a trade union party. There is little dispute that it was founded as such. But today?

Stating that Labour remains the political expression of organised labour underlines the importance of independent working-class politics, and draws attention to the continuing fact of trade union affiliation.

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