Len McCluskey: 'It is sometimes said that there is a common thread linking the generations of the Milibands'

Published: 18 January, 2013
by RICHARD OSLEY

ONE of the country’s most powerful trade union chiefs warned on Tuesday how some Labour politicians did not want to “rock their careers” with bolder opposition to government-ordered cuts to public spending.

Len McCluskey, chair of UNITE union, told an audience at the London School of Economics in Holborn that it would be “fantastic” if Labour councils joined together and simply refused to implement the cuts.

He was taking part in a lecture series at the university held in the name of Ralph Miliband, the left wing political theorist who was father to current Labour Party leader Ed Miliband and his brother, David, the former foreign secretary.

Mr McCluskey said: “It is sometimes said that there is a common thread linking the generations of the Milibands. 

“The father spent his life trying to convince our movement that there was no possibility of a parliamentary road to socialism, while his sons have been loyally putting theory into practice and proving Ralph right.”

Mr McCluskey is encouraging UNITE activists to join Labour and to try to press for more MPs coming from a working-class background.

He said: “The fact that Labour councillors are paid, often some of them see it as a career and they don’t particularly want to rock that career and therefore their engagement in trying to seek opposition  and ways of opposing the cuts becomes minimised.”

He added: “Our message is always that they should engage with the trade unions and work together to see if cuts can be minimised, to see whether there is an opportunity to build a resistance to what the Tories have imposed on them.”