Ed Miliband union backers accused over Labour ballot mail-out

GMB union's endorsement on leadership voting envelopes 'breaches spirit of election'
Ed Miliband GMB mail-out
The GMB union sent members a larger envelope with ballot papers that contained an Ed Miliband endorsement. Public Domain

One of Ed Miliband's major union backers was accused today of breaching the spirit of the rules surrounding the Labour leadership vote by sending out ballot papers in packages calling for union members to endorse him.

The GMB sent its 700,000 members ballot papers within a larger envelope featuring Ed Miliband's picture. Party rules say you cannot include in the ballot envelope any literature backing a candidate.

"Affiliates should not include any materials in the ballot envelope indicating support for individual candidates," the rules say. "The ballot envelope may be inserted in another union mailing, which may contain a recommendation from the trade union as to which candidate to support."

There is doubt at senior levels in the Labour party over whether the type of literature put out by unions supporting their chosen candidates was within the principles set out by the party before this year's contest to find a new Labour leader.

The GMB stuck to the guidance: the ballot envelopes were in smaller envelopes, put together and sealed by the Electoral Reform Society – which oversaw the Labour leadership contest – before being delivered to the mailing depot where the GMB also watched over their loading into a larger envelope that was then sent out to members.

The union, again within the rules, put its endorsement for Ed Miliband on the front of the package sent to all members which included a magazine with his picture on the front and a letter from the leader of the GMB, Paul Kenny, explaining the union's endorsement of the younger Miliband brother.

Kenny wrote: "I believe that Ed Miliband is the person best placed to deliver for GMB members. That is why GMB is asking you to put him as your top preference on the enclosed ballot paper."

Mark Wickham-Jones, professor of politics at Bristol University, was worried by the GMB's mailout. He said: "The GMB appear to have broken the spirit of the rules guiding the conduct of the Labour party leadership election by sending out a strong recommendation for Ed Miliband together with the ballot paper for political levy payers.

"In the event of an Ed Miliband victory, if the GMB has broken the [spirit of the] rules laid down for the election, it may well be more than an embarrassment for both the new leader and the party. It may well suggest that the margin of his victory depended on votes cast in dubious circumstances. It will be particularly uncomfortable for a candidate already seen as being close to the trade unions."

Wickham-Jones believes the complexity of the election rules, and the fact that there were multiple candidates, generate results that are very tight and that the experience of past elections suggests that the union endorsement matters.

"Something like 40%, or more, of those voting follow it. The proximity of ballot paper and the union recommendation may well explain that ratio. The GMB votes could prove pivotal in this election: it has the second highest numbers of political levy papers, behind only the Unite union."

Unions are irritated at the suggestion that they have overstepped the mark – they think that by consenting that no endorsement literature would appear inside the actual ballot envelope they have already vacated space that until 2007's deputy leadership election was allowed to them.

Alan Johnson, the former home secretary and ex-leader of the Communication Workers Union, and a David Miliband supporter, was critical but sanguine about the way unions had sent out literature endorsing the candidates. He said: "That was stretching the rules a bit. But I've got no argument with leaderships making a recommendation. That's what trade unions do for all kinds of areas."

A spokesperson for the GMB said: "Everything we did was entirely in order of both the spirit and the actual rules and the idea that we shouldn't be able to tell our members how to vote is wrong.

"People who are saying we shouldn't be able to tell our union members who we think should be Labour leader are talking about an entirely different party. We are an affiliated organisation – a founder member of the party.

"We are a democratic organisation, every single member is free to make their own mind up and whatever proportion of vote the candidates get they will get when we allocate votes.""

If Ed Miliband wins the leadership on the back of union votes, Tories are likely to look to exploit the GMB's behaviour.