Conservative MPs urged to target Unite in hunt for votes

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Conservative MPs urged to target Unite union in hunt for votes

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The Conservative Party is urging its MPs and election candidates to make links with Britain’s biggest union in an effort to win votes from union members, The Times has learnt.

Richard Balfe, David Cameron’s envoy to the trade union movement, said that even though leaders of Unite had refused to hold talks with the party, Conservative politicians were being asked to approach their local Unite officials and members.

A Populus poll commissioned by the Conservative Party showed that 31 per cent of Unite members would vote Conservative at the next election, compared with 34 per cent who will support Labour. It revealed a sharp change in support for the parties since the last election, when 22 per cent said that they voted Conservative and 48 per cent said that they voted Labour.

The Tory overtures come amid rising tensions between many unions and the Government. Postal unions have criticised the Government’s attempt to sell off part of Royal Mail, Unite has accused ministers of failing to support the car industry and public sector unions have condemned planned pay increases.

Mr Balfe told The Times: “Many trade unionists are middle-class workers who the Conservative Party has to look to for votes. A lot of trade union members support the Conservative party. If you look at Prospect [the professional engineering and scientific union], probably the majority do.

“There is no plan in the Conservative party to repeal any of the trade union rights. If there were, Peter Mandelson could be relied on to do that for us. He is no more friendly to trade unions than any average Tory minister from the past. If you look at David Cameron’s policies on parental leave and family friendly issues we will probably be in the market for extending trade union rights in that area.”

Mr Balfe, a former Labour MEP and member of Unite, said that most unions had engaged in some dialogue with him but that Unite refused to do so. He attacked the union’s leadership, especially Derek Simpson, the newly elected joint general secretary of the Amicus half of Unite, and said that his re-election was “a bad day for Unite”.

Mr Balfe said: “If I were a Unite member in the banking industry, I’d be pretty furious that he is refusing to talk to the Conservative Party. Smaller banking unions are talking to us. Amicus members are not being represented because their general secretary chooses not to represent them.”

A Unite spokesman said: “Richard Balfe merely shows why the Tories aren’t worth talking to. He prefers personal abuse to serious policy proposals and he shows contempt for our members’ democratic decision in the recent election. Perhaps it is time he moved on to yet another political party.”