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| David Cameron taunts Ed Miliband over links to union | David Cameron taunts Ed Miliband over links to union |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| David Cameron and Ed Miliband have been involved in some of their bitterest exchanges after the prime minister seized on a Labour parliamentary selection row to claim that Britain's largest trade union had taken control of the Labour leader. | David Cameron and Ed Miliband have been involved in some of their bitterest exchanges after the prime minister seized on a Labour parliamentary selection row to claim that Britain's largest trade union had taken control of the Labour leader. |
| The Labour leader hit back as he accused the prime minister of taking "double standards to a whole new level" for lecturing him on ethics after taking the former newspaper editor Andy Coulson into the heart of Downing Street. | |
| Cameron taunted Miliband after the former home secretary David Blunkett warned of the dangers of returning to the "divisions and diversions" of the past as he said that Labour would end up in the "graveyard" if it steered clear of radical ideas focused on the future. Blunkett spoke out after the Labour leadership took control of the selection of a parliamentary candidate in Falkirk after an internal investigation examined allegations that Unite had packed the constituency with supporters. | |
| The prime minister responded to questions from Miliband, who was supported by Unite in the 2010 Labour leadership contest, by taunting him over his links with Britain's largest trade union. | The prime minister responded to questions from Miliband, who was supported by Unite in the 2010 Labour leadership contest, by taunting him over his links with Britain's largest trade union. |
| Cameron said: "He is taking his script from the trade unions. They don't like choice, they don't like new schools, they don't like free schools. They want to control everything. But what we know is one organisation they have got control of. We see it in black and white – they have taken control of the Labour party." | Cameron said: "He is taking his script from the trade unions. They don't like choice, they don't like new schools, they don't like free schools. They want to control everything. But what we know is one organisation they have got control of. We see it in black and white – they have taken control of the Labour party." |
| He added: "[Miliband] goes up and down the country speaking for [the Unite general secretary] Len McCluskey. No wonder the former home secretary calls them the party of the graveyard." | |
| Cameron then quoted from a Unite press release in which the union outlined its plans to change the Labour party by making its policies more class-based and ensuring the 2015 general manifesto is leftwing. He said: "That is what this week shows [about Miliband] – too weak to sack his health secretary, too weak to stand up for free schools, too weak to stand up to the Unite union, too weak to run Labour and certainly too weak to run the country. | |
| "We have a situation in this country where we have got one of our political parties where it has become apparent votes are being bought, people are being signed up without consent. All done by the man – Len McCluskey – who gave him [Miliband] his job." | "We have a situation in this country where we have got one of our political parties where it has become apparent votes are being bought, people are being signed up without consent. All done by the man – Len McCluskey – who gave him [Miliband] his job." |
| The Labour leader hit back: "Let's have a debate about ethics. This is a prime minister who had dinners for donors in Downing Street. He gave a tax cut to his Christmas card list. And he bought Andy Coulson into the heart of Downing Street. The idea that he is lecturing us about ethics takes double standards to a whole new level." | The Labour leader hit back: "Let's have a debate about ethics. This is a prime minister who had dinners for donors in Downing Street. He gave a tax cut to his Christmas card list. And he bought Andy Coulson into the heart of Downing Street. The idea that he is lecturing us about ethics takes double standards to a whole new level." |
| John Bercow, the Commons speaker who likes to say the prime minister is meant to answer questions in the weekly session, showed some irritation and cut him off at one point. The Speaker's patience snapped when Richard Drax, the Conservative MP for South Dorset, asked Cameron whether he would agree that the "voting irregularities" in Falkirk should be looked at urgently. | |
| Amid noise from both sides, Bercow intervened to say: "Order, order. The question's about a party matter, it is not a matter of government responsibility. No no. Not a matter for the prime minister – complete waste of time." | |
| The exchanges took place shortly after Jim Murphy, the shadow defence secretary, accused Unite of having "overstepped the mark" in the selection of the Labour parliamentary candidate in Falkirk. Murphy, who was criticised by McCluskey in a recent New Statesman interview, told the BBC: "Something had gone really badly wrong in Falkirk when it came to the selection of the Labour candidate. I don't blame the people locally – there's clearly been some external interference. | |
| "While trade unions are an important part of a society and our politics, there seems to be one trade union in particular that has well and truly overstepped the mark. It's clear that Unite don't run the Labour party – Ed Miliband does. And we should never confuse those two things." | "While trade unions are an important part of a society and our politics, there seems to be one trade union in particular that has well and truly overstepped the mark. It's clear that Unite don't run the Labour party – Ed Miliband does. And we should never confuse those two things." |
| Murphy spoke out after Unite attacked Labour's national executive committee (NEC) after it placed Falkirk into "special measures" after an internal investigation examined allegations that the union had packed the constituency with supporters. The NEC announced last week that it had found "sufficient evidence for concern" about the way in which members were signed up for the Falkirk constituency Labour party (CLP). | |
| The Labour party rejected a call from Blunkett to publish the internal party investigation into the Falkirk allegations on the grounds the report was internal and not designed for the public. | The Labour party rejected a call from Blunkett to publish the internal party investigation into the Falkirk allegations on the grounds the report was internal and not designed for the public. |
| A Labour spokesman added there was no evidence available of any similar irregularities concerning other candidate selections, but conceded for the first time that the party general secretary, Iain McNicol, was looking into the practice that allows unions to pay the first year of a union member's party subscription. | A Labour spokesman added there was no evidence available of any similar irregularities concerning other candidate selections, but conceded for the first time that the party general secretary, Iain McNicol, was looking into the practice that allows unions to pay the first year of a union member's party subscription. |
| He confirmed that it was within the current party rules for unions to pay the subscriptions for the first year, adding that the issue would be resolved quite quickly. | He confirmed that it was within the current party rules for unions to pay the subscriptions for the first year, adding that the issue would be resolved quite quickly. |
| The spokesman also defended Miliband, saying the Labour leader had acted within hours of receiving a report showing there had been irregularities. He said there was no plan for McCluskey and Miliband to meet shortly, and also insisted there was no plan to accede to the Unite request for the issue to be discussed by the full national executive. |