Labour admits: We gave GBP3m of taxpayers' money to the unions

Labour admits: We gave GBP3m of taxpayers' money to the unions. Check it out:
(The Mail on Sunday Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) THE true extent of Labour's capitulation to the union barons who fund the party is revealed today in an embarrassing internal dossier.

Labour chairman Hazel Blears has penned an extraordinary seven-page memo boasting of the 25 ways the party has acceded to trade union demands over the past two years.

These include a new GBP3million 'union modernisation fund' from which taxpayers' money is directly used to subsidise their activities.

Ms Blears also trumpets the watering-down of antistrike legislation and Labour's plans to give union bosses greater power in the 'modern workplace'.

The document was prepared as a private briefing note to MPs to help them head off any complaints from local shop stewards that the Labour Government was doing too little to help them.

Unions are keen to ensure Ministers deliver on the so-called Warwick Agreement of 2004, when the party agreed to a series of controversial demands in return for their continued financial support.

Publicly Tony Blair likes to keep his distance from the increasingly Leftwing figures who lead Britain's big unions. But the Blears memo reveals clearly how his Government has been quietly advancing union interests behind the scenes.

The Tories claimed the dossier showed that Labour, despite its talk about helping enterprise and industry, was still in hock to the unions. The unions now provide it with most of its large donations.

And Labour's largest outstanding loan is owed to the Unity Trust Bank, set up by the trade unions to help credit unions and charities.

Conservative chairman Francis Maude said: 'This is yet more evidence of the dodgy deals hatched between Labour and the unions.

'In return for funding Labour's campaigning, they're getting pet policies and bungs with taxpayers' money. This cronyism undermines our entire democratic process.

'That's why we put forward proposals to clean up politics, including a cap on political donations. It should come as no surprise that Labour have already rejected them out of hand.'

Copyright 2006 The Mail on Sunday.
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