Spilling the Beans

Tom Gordon and Paul Hutcheon spill the beans in The Sunday Herald over what the trade unions have been up to in the contest to elect a new leader for the Scottish Labour Party.

In backing Neil Findlay the trade unions simply demonstrated how out of touch they are if you ask me, because a big majority of individual Labour Party members backed Jim Murphy  who also won the support of most Labour MPs, MSPs and MEPs.

In doing so the trade unions happily spent around £30,000 of their members' money (plus other 'in kind' donations), yet these kind of resources are never made available on the big 'bread and butter' for ordinary union members such as the fight for equal pay in North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire, for example.   


Murphy's own union spent thousands in failed bid to stop him becoming Scottish Labour leader

By Tom Gordon and Paul Hutcheon - The Sunday Herald

JIM Murphy's own union spent thousands of pounds trying to stop him from becoming Scottish Labour's new leader, it has emerged.

GMB Scotland, which Murphy has been a member of for 20 years, generously funded his main rival, the left-wing MSP Neil Findlay, according to newly released Electoral Commission files.

The GMB donated £5847 in cash and other forms of support to Findlay's campaign, making it the second biggest donor to his leadership effort.

Only the super-union Unite gave more, putting £10,980 in cash and other help Findlay's way.

Six unions in total backed Findlay for leader.

As well as the GMB and Unite, Unison's Labour Link gave £4242, the traindrivers' union Aslef gave £1650, the Communication Workers' Union gave £3000, and the transport union RMT gave £2000.

One of Labour's staunchest supporters, Thompsons Solicitors, who have previously donated more than £200,000 to the party, also backed Findlay.

The law firm gave £3000 cash and £2000 in other support, bringing the total value of donations declared by Findlay so far to £32,919.

However, trade union spending for Findlay is understood to be higher than the sums declared to the Commission.

Some unions funded mailshots to their members backing the Lothians MSP, expenditure that is not a direct donation and does not have to be registered.

Murphy has declared £36,500 cash and £4000 worth of office space but none of it came from the trade union movement, whose leaders saw him a right-wing relic of the Tony Blair era.

Murphy's biggest donor was John McGuire, founder of the Phoenix car firm, who gave £20,000; North East businessman Alan Massie gave £14,500 and former Nato boss Lord Robertson gave £2000. Although Murphy had a slight spending advantage in the contest to succeed Johann Lamont, his margin of victory was emphatic: he won the membership and parliamentary sections of the electoral college easily, and was only narrowly beaten by Findlay in the union members section.

The former Scottish Secretary won in December with 55.7% of the vote, with Findlay on 34.5%, and MSP Sarah Boyack a distant third.

Last week there was confusion over whether Murphy would definitely stand in East Renfrewshire at the general election, after the party said he remained their candidate, but also left open the possibility that this position might change.

Former Better Together director Blair McDougall, who comes from the constituency, started his career in politics working for Murphy, and was last week named as Murphy's new director of policy, has been heavily tipped to stand in the seat if Murphy does step down before May.

MP for East Renfrewshire since 1997, Murphy had a 10,420-vote majority over the Tories in 2010.