Miliband's union problem refuses to go away: 10 out of 11 regions choose Unite candidate to top Euro election lists

Claims of a union take-over despite pledge to water down union links

More than 20 candidates for EU elections have links to Unite

Super-union boasts of 'Unite MEPs' on its website



Ed Miliband was accused of caving in to a ‘stitch-up’ by the Unite union yesterday as its candidates dominated the party’s list of prospective MEPs.

Candidates who are backed by Unite, have worked for Unite or are members of Unite secured the top slot in ten of the 11 regional lists of Labour candidates for the European elections next May.

That means that the vast majority of the party’s representatives in Brussels will owe their success to the union, run by hard-Left firebrand Len McCluskey.

Pressure: Labour leader Ed Miliband faces claims of a union 'stitch-up' after the party's list of candidates for next year's European elections was dominated by union-backed wannabe MEPs

Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Harman boasted that the slate of almost 70 candidates ‘come from all walks of life and from all different communities across the UK’.

But two-thirds – 46 – have union links and 25 of those have ties to Unite.

In every case where existing Labour MEPs were standing down or Labour has no MEP – the most contentious selections – a Unite candidate came top. They include Clare Moody, a political officer for Unite, who was involved in the British Airways strikes and had a desk in Downing Street under Gordon Brown.

Links: Judith Kirton-Darling a former Unite official, and Labour MP for Birmingham ErdingtonSion Simon, who said he had always been a Unite member



Others are former Unite European officer Judith Kirton-Darling, and Unite member and former Labour MP Sion Simon.

MEPs are elected on a list system, with the number elected from each party’s list dependent on the proportion of votes they receive in each region. That means that only the candidates near the top of the list are likely to get elected.

On its website the union claims that after the 2009 poll ‘Unite now has eight MEPs in Brussels out of a total of 13 UK Labour MEPs’.

Number one: Unite national officer Clare Moody, who had a desk in Gordon Brown's Number 10, topped the list in the South West

The selections mean that if Labour were to do as well next year as they did in 2009, the number of MEPs linked to Unite would increase to 11 out of 13.

And if Labour gains seats, as it might, in the South West and the West Midlands, Unite candidates would be the beneficiaries.

The announcement fuelled controversy in the Labour Party that unions have forced out strong local candidates.

Under Labour rules the candidates are initially selected by a regional panel on which the unions and local party bosses hold half the seats each. Only then do party members get a chance to vote on where they would like them on the list.

In the South West one candidate who failed to get on the shortlist has accused Unite of imposing an all-women shortlist to ensure the success of Clare Moody.

She is ranked number one on the list ahead of former MEP Glyn Ford, who is also a Unite member.

In London – where Unite-backed MEP Claude Moraes is ranked number one – Anne Fairweather, who topped the poll among London members in 2009, was not even allowed to stand by Labour apparatchiks.

Her treatment prompted Peter Watt, Labour’s former general secretary, to complain: ‘The feeling is that as she has a pro-business background she was blocked by the trade unions. It really is a stitch-up.

‘The regional panels are supposed to be balanced between local parties and trade unions but in reality many of the local party reps are really trade union placemen and women.



'So many of the panels are pretty much controlled by the trade unions.

Powerbase: How Unite boasts about have 'Unite's MEPs' including several standing for election in 2014

‘The trade unions have then used their power to select who they want and block those that they do not.’

Lord Mandelson has warned that trade unions wield an ‘absolutely disgraceful’ influence over the selection of candidates.

A leaked Unite document earlier this year boasted that the union was ‘working hard to ensure that good progressive candidates are high on the list.’

Boast: Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey has pushed for more union influence over candidates

Judith Kirton-Darling tops the list in the North East, while the top two selections in the West Midlands are both Unite members, former MEP Neena Gill and Mr Simon.

He is a close friend of Tom Watson, the former Labour campaign co-ordinator who resigned amid claims that Unite sought to stitch up a Parliamentary selection in Falkirk for his office manager Karie Murphy, a close friend of Mr McCluskey.

Mr Simon says on his website: ‘I was always a Unite MP, just as I have always been a Unite member.’

Only in the East Midlands where Glenis Willmott MEP, a former GMB official, is top did Unite fail to secure the top spot – and in that case Unite member Rory Palmer was second.

Tory party chairman Grant Shapps said: ‘While Ed Miliband hides away in his French bunker, Unite continues its audacious takeover: they are buying Labour policies, pushing Ed Miliband around, and today’s revelations show the top candidate in more than 90 per cent of Labour’s MEP candidate lists is in Len McCluskey’s pocket.

‘These candidates are former Gordon Brown aides and strike-organisers. Even senior Labour sources are calling it a “union stitch-up”.

‘It’s the same old Labour Party, and if Ed Miliband cannot stand up to Len McCluskey, he’s too weak to stand up for hardworking people.’