Mr Miliband has red-lined elements of the party’s current review of policies and structures as an indication that he is not prepared to budge, putting his leadership – and the entire outcome of the review, which is meant to provide a blueprint for winning the next election – on the line.
These include a controversial proposal to open participation in the Labour Party’s key decision-making processes to registered supporters who may be neither members of the party nor trade unionists. The idea has been mooted for some time, mostly with the enthusiastic support of former Blairites who backed his brother David in the leadership election last year.
There was, however, an early indication of the leader’s thinking during his first – victory – speech to conference in Manchester last year and the red-lining of the proposal underlines his determination to throw down a gauntlet to his party.
But the unions fear it amounts to another move, in the wake of recent warnings against industrial action to fight the Conservative-led coalition’s brutal public sector cuts, to distance the leadership – and the Labour Party – from the people who pick up the bills and who the party was, historically, formed to represent in Parliament.
It would also diminish the trade unions’ influence in deciding the outcome of future leadership elections – something of an irony as Mr Miliband’s own election as leader was clinched with union votes.
The unions currently control 50 per cent of the votes at conference and the concern among union activists and left-wing party members is that this would have to be reduced to accommodate a new breed of “registered supporters” – people who would like a say in making policy and choosing the leader but don’t want or can’t be bothered to join the party.
The row comes just as it was announced that David Miliband, who has kept a low profile since he was beaten by his brother last year, has agreed to embark on a tour of universities in the autumn in a bid to recruit new members, a move described by one senior MP as “less of an olive branch to Ed and more of an alternative campaign for his future leadership”.
Union leaders are seeking to clarify details of the changes in the run-up to the party conference in Liverpool next month where Winning Labour – which organisers describe as “a vehicle for ideas, not individual ambition” – will set out their stall under the slogan “Winning back Labour’s lost millions”.
Party members active in Unite, Unison, the GMB, ASLEF and UCATT are calling for an economy based on fair taxation, public investment, and regulation of the market to benefit the many, not the few; the development of responsive, accountable, and high quality public services free of damaging marketisation and privatisation; and underlining the vital role of trade unions as champions of working people and public services and, crucially, developing their important place in the party.
