Brown told not to cap union funding

12 April 2012

A senior Labour backbencher warned Gordon Brown that the "proxy" donations scandal must not be allowed to undermine the party's links with the trade unions.

Former deputy leadership candidate Jon Cruddas insisted that funding from the unions was the "cleanest money in politics".

Caving in to Tory demands for a £50,000 annual cap on gifts from workers' organisations would make the situation worse and leave Labour with "one hand tied behind our back", Mr Cruddas argued.

The Dagenham MP's intervention, in an article for the Sunday Mirror, comes as pressure grows on the Prime Minister to strike a deal over political funding. Talks between the main parties collapsed in October after clashes over whether a cap should apply to money from trade unions.

But since it emerged that millionaire property developer David Abrahams had been donating to Labour through intermediaries, Mr Brown has signalled he may be willing to compromise on the contentious issue.

Mr Cruddas admitted that the subject of funding was now "toxic". "But in attempting to get this all straightened out, we must be wary of making it even worse," he added.

The Tories had always relied on a small number of wealthy donors who had "special interests", according to Mr Cruddas, and the same had increasingly become true for Labour and the Lib Dems.

"It's not surprising that ordinary people feel that politicians dance to the tune of the rich, or worry that these donors are angling for a seat in the Lords," he wrote.

"But that's not how it works with the unions. Money donated by the trade unions is the cleanest money in politics, and it makes my blood boil when those Tories try to smear the small contributions of tens of thousands of ordinary working people."

He pointed out that union members could choose to prevent their subs from going to any political purpose, and controlled how the money was spent through democratic mechanisms.

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