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- HARDLINE union chiefs have launched a crusade to radicalise Labour by targeting the party’s youth wing, it was claimed last night.
- Worried insiders said a “formidable” machine led by Unite and the GMB was “influencing the next generation of activists” — and forcing moderates away.
- They even compared the situation to the infiltration by the hard-left Militant Tendency in the 1980s which caused years of bitter division in the Labour movement.
- The alarm was raised after youth wing Young Labour controversially REJECTED Ed Miliband’s reforms of the union link at their conference last weekend.
- Delegates originally backed the overhaul by 103 votes to 100. But after furious demands for a re-count apparently led by union-linked young activists, that was overturned 109-107 in a second ballot.
- Eyewitnesses described scenes of “intimidation” so ugly that some delegates left the room in tears.
- A day later the conference — which featured speeches from frontbenchers Harriet Harman and Rachel Reeves — backed a series of hard-left motions, including a 10 per cent “super tax” on the top 10 per cent of earners, renationalising the railways and an end to right-to-buy.
- The Sun on Sunday can reveal Unite and GMB paid for its members to attend the conference in Bradford — covering costs which were too high for some hard-up students.
- Both unions insisted they had not given instructions on how to vote.
- But a senior Young Labour figure, who insisted on remaining anonymous for fear of reprisals, said: “There were about 200 people at conference and the unions have about half of them stitched up. You can’t compete with them. If you’re trying to attract ordinary students to spend their own money, and unions are paying for people to come, you’re never going to compete.
- “This is where the money from the political fund is going — they are bussing in the Trots. It’s a return to the infiltration we saw in the 1980s.
- “There’s a big issue here — so much campaigning in seats is done by the young members in the party. If you lose them to the far left like we did in the 1980s, it’s déjà vu.”
- Another Labour source said: “The unions are doing a lot of work influencing the next generation of Labour activists.
- “We need to wake up to this. When Len McCluskey says he wants to build the next generation he is not bulls***ting — he’s actually doing it.”
- A Unite spokesman dismissed the claims of intimidation and said Labour clubs and constituency parties would also have covered costs for delegates.
- But they added: “We are keen to get people of every shape involved in the party. It’s something that we have said consistently.
- “We have young members and they are becoming more active and we are looking at how we as a union can recruit more young people and how we can engage so we are campaigning on issues which are important to them — like jobs, homes and hope for the future.”
- Conservative chairman Grant Shapps said: “It’s clear Ed Miliband has lost complete control of his party and allowed the unions to take it over.”
- But a Labour spokesman said: “It was a youth conference and there is opposition to these reforms — but they have now been passed with much higher backing than people expected.”
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