by René Lavanchy
LABOUR’S affiliated unions said they rejected Tory efforts to court the labour movement this week after Richard Balfe, David Cameron’s personal envoy to the unions, suggested that a Tory government was inclined to maintain government subsidy of union learning.
Mr Balfe, a former Labour MEP who defected to the Tories in 2002, visited the TUC Congress as part of a strategy to win over union bosses and promote the Conservatives as progressive. He says Mr Cameron has told him to spend “whatever it takes”.
He is preparing to conduct a review of Unionlearn, the Government-funded programme which has trained over 200,000 representatives to promote learning opportunities through the workplace. Mr Balfe told Tribune he favoured keeping the programme: “What would be the gain from dismantling it? None, that I can see.”
He added: “The present government is carrying out policies which which even some Conservatives would blanch at”.
A CWU spokesperson rejected the suggestion: “The fact that the Tories have to have an envoy is very telling of where they are as a party”.
