More Dirty Tricks
Amazing - I wonder what this saga will throw up next?
Unite union’s dirty tricks dupe Miliband
1,000 Unite emails shown to police
By David Leppard
Unite union chiefs told PR team to dig out ‘nasty stuff’ on Labour figures, emails reveal (Christopher Furlong)
ED MILIBAND is facing a crisis this weekend as a cache of bombshell emails exposes a concerted union plot involving threats, intimidation and dirty tricks to thwart his inquiry into alleged electoral corruption.
More than 1,000 emails reveal how Unite chiefs subverted an inquiry ordered by the Labour leader into allegations that the union had rigged votes in Falkirk to get its nominee selected as the party’s parliamentary candidate.
The dossier of emails was passed to police last week. It reveals how Unite chiefs:
■ Told the union’s PR team to dig out “nasty stuff” on key Labour party figures
■ Wrote witnesses’ testimony withdrawing key evidence of alleged wrongdoing, with the new statements approved by the official implicated in the scandal
■ Tracked Labour investigators as they interviewed witnesses in Falkirk and boasted how one witness had told them to “F*** off”
■ Planned to use senior union and Labour figures to intimidate and disrupt Miliband’s investigation team.
In one email, a key figure in the affair told colleagues they needed to avoid giving the impression that they were behaving like “some hotbed of union ballot riggers”.
This weekend Miliband is facing pressure to reopen the inquiry, which he was forced to drop last month after all the allegations of vote-rigging were withdrawn.
It will refocus the spotlight on how far the Labour leader can rein in the party’s union paymasters, who are fighting his attempts to loosen their financial links.
Peter Watt, former general secretary of the Labour party, said: “Understandably, the initial inquiry was pulled because of lack of evidence. If new information has surfaced that puts a question mark over that lack of evidence the party should consider reopening its inquiry.”
At the centre of the scandal is Stevie Deans, the constituency party chairman in Falkirk, whose emails reveal the scale of the plot. Deans is also Unite boss at the huge Grangemouth oil refinery, which was brought to the brink of closure last week. It was only after the union caved in that the plant, and its staff, were saved.
The emails were uncovered by lawyers brought in by executives at Ineos, the owners of the Grangemouth complex.
The company, which is owned by the billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, suspected Deans was devoting much of his work time to Labour party business rather than representing the workforce.
The 1,000 emails in the leaked Falkirk files show that a letter to be sent to Iain McNicol, Labour’s general secretary, and key statements retracting the vote-rigging claims were not written by the four witnesses, members of a local family called the Kanes.
Instead, the emails show the witnesses’ testimony was drawn up by Unite and sent to Deans — who was heavily implicated in the alleged vote-rigging — for his “approval”.
The focus is again on how Miliband can rein in his party’s union paymasters (Ben Stansall)
The move was part of a desperate bid by Unite to save the careers of Deans and Karie Murphy, the Unite candidate he was trying to parachute into the Scottish constituency.
In an emergency strategy email of July 30, Howard Beckett, a Unite executive, said Deans would be given the job of arranging for the testimony, which he had approved, to be signed by four members of the Kane family.
The four were among new recruits to the Falkirk Labour party and had been the source of the original claims that some had been signed up without their knowledge.
In a separate email sent on the same day, Deans said he was “happy” with the draft retraction drawn up by Unite “and can get this to the Kane family and get it posted tonight”.
The emails lay bare a concerted strategy by the union to infiltrate the local party with Unite supporters. By doing so, they hoped to ensure that the union’s candidate, Murphy, who was office manager to Tom Watson, the then Labour deputy chairman, was selected.
The 1,000 emails were presented to Deans by senior Ineos managers at Grangemouth at a disciplinary hearing last Thursday. He was told at the meeting that the company wanted to sack him.
The emails appear to show conclusively that Deans broke company rules on moonlighting, but they are more significant because of the insight they provide into how Deans, Murphy and other Unite figures reacted to what Deans described in one email as the vote-rigging “s*** storm”.
Ineos says its inquiry found Deans had spent 25% of his work time organising Labour matters — including the infiltration of his own constituency party by Unite. The company said it paid him to work as a union convenor representing members at Grangemouth.
“The company has presented Mr Deans with the findings of its inquiry into the alleged inappropriate use of company resources and systems,” Ineos said yesterday. “It will make a further announcement on Tuesday.”
Police in Scotland confirmed they had been handed a file by the company on Friday. A spokeswoman said: “Police Scotland can confirm that a person attended at Falkirk police station on Friday with some information which is being looked into.” It is understood officers have requested the company make an official complaint.
Unite said yesterday that its officials denied having inappropriate contact with witnesses. “All processes were conducted entirely properly by Unite, through external solicitors, and were made known to the police,” it said.
The union added: “Unite was the subject of entirely unjustified attacks in relation to the Labour parliamentary selection in Falkirk.
“Both the Labour party and Police Scotland investigated the issue and found that neither the law nor the party’s rules were broken by the union.
“Unite’s own quite proper investigations into what had occurred in Falkirk, which we were enjoined to undertake, were all conducted through the medium of external solicitors.”
The union said it had “no direct contact” with anyone involved in the Labour party investigation and that it was normal for people subject to investigations to seek legal advice.
But Henry Smith, the Conservative MP for Crawley, said: “Ed Miliband must reopen the inquiry into the Falkirk parliamentary selection contest as soon as possible, in light of these very concerning emails showing Unite were potentially coercing people to withdraw statements while claiming that there had been no Unite involvement,” he said.
“They raise very serious issues that have not properly been addressed. It would be very worrying if an organisation has put pressure on people to change statements and potentially hide the truth of what has actually been going on.”
‘A blueprint of how to hijack a constituency'
The move was part of a desperate bid by Unite to save the careers of Deans and Karie Murphy, the Unite candidate he was trying to parachute into the Scottish constituency.
In an emergency strategy email of July 30, Howard Beckett, a Unite executive, said Deans would be given the job of arranging for the testimony, which he had approved, to be signed by four members of the Kane family.
The four were among new recruits to the Falkirk Labour party and had been the source of the original claims that some had been signed up without their knowledge.
In a separate email sent on the same day, Deans said he was “happy” with the draft retraction drawn up by Unite “and can get this to the Kane family and get it posted tonight”.
The emails lay bare a concerted strategy by the union to infiltrate the local party with Unite supporters. By doing so, they hoped to ensure that the union’s candidate, Murphy, who was office manager to Tom Watson, the then Labour deputy chairman, was selected.
The 1,000 emails were presented to Deans by senior Ineos managers at Grangemouth at a disciplinary hearing last Thursday. He was told at the meeting that the company wanted to sack him.
The emails appear to show conclusively that Deans broke company rules on moonlighting, but they are more significant because of the insight they provide into how Deans, Murphy and other Unite figures reacted to what Deans described in one email as the vote-rigging “s*** storm”.
Ineos says its inquiry found Deans had spent 25% of his work time organising Labour matters — including the infiltration of his own constituency party by Unite. The company said it paid him to work as a union convenor representing members at Grangemouth.
“The company has presented Mr Deans with the findings of its inquiry into the alleged inappropriate use of company resources and systems,” Ineos said yesterday. “It will make a further announcement on Tuesday.”
Police in Scotland confirmed they had been handed a file by the company on Friday. A spokeswoman said: “Police Scotland can confirm that a person attended at Falkirk police station on Friday with some information which is being looked into.” It is understood officers have requested the company make an official complaint.
Unite said yesterday that its officials denied having inappropriate contact with witnesses. “All processes were conducted entirely properly by Unite, through external solicitors, and were made known to the police,” it said.
The union added: “Unite was the subject of entirely unjustified attacks in relation to the Labour parliamentary selection in Falkirk.
“Both the Labour party and Police Scotland investigated the issue and found that neither the law nor the party’s rules were broken by the union.
“Unite’s own quite proper investigations into what had occurred in Falkirk, which we were enjoined to undertake, were all conducted through the medium of external solicitors.”
The union said it had “no direct contact” with anyone involved in the Labour party investigation and that it was normal for people subject to investigations to seek legal advice.
But Henry Smith, the Conservative MP for Crawley, said: “Ed Miliband must reopen the inquiry into the Falkirk parliamentary selection contest as soon as possible, in light of these very concerning emails showing Unite were potentially coercing people to withdraw statements while claiming that there had been no Unite involvement,” he said.
“They raise very serious issues that have not properly been addressed. It would be very worrying if an organisation has put pressure on people to change statements and potentially hide the truth of what has actually been going on.”
‘A blueprint of how to hijack a constituency'
