Wham! Len McCluskey and Ed Miliband have spent this afternoon hitting criticisms back and forth over the Falkirk row. Earlier, the Labour leader sent a challenge shooting over the net to the Unite boss, telling McCluskey he ‘should be facing up to his responsibilities’. Then the Labour party said it was referring the matter to the police. McCluskey slammed back on Sky News, saying Unite had ‘done nothing wrong’. He said:
‘I’m afraid the way it has been handled by the Labour party headquarters is nothing short of disgraceful.’
And he warned Ed off having a confrontation with the unions:
‘It’s depressing that Labour leaders seem to want to have a Clause 4 moment, they have got to have a situation where they front up union leaders. Well, Ed doesn’t need to front up me. I’m his friend. I support him.’
That was a good shot, but Miliband was waiting. Back came a pooled broadcast interview, in which he said that ‘Len McCluskey hasn’t behaved well in this process. I think he should have faced up to the serious concerns that there were in Falkirk’.
This rally, which will doubtless continue over the next few days, would be dramatic and powerful enough if it weren’t for noises off court as well. Chuka Umunna told the BBC that Falkirk was an isolated case, which might come back to haunt him if any other allegations arise. Umunna also warned the Conservatives of the dangers of ‘deriding’ trade union members because many of them vote Tory (a point I made in my Telegraph column this morning).
The Tories are shouting that Labour were ‘bounced into’ referring the case to the police by a letter from Henry Smith to the Chief Constable of Scotland, which was sent yesterday.
What comes next, and who will be the first to hit the ball out? This probably depends on whether our friends on the Sunday newspapers will be able to produce allegations that other constituencies were subject to similar stitch-ups.
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