Unlock Democracy have published a report today, spelling out how their proposals to reform the way trade unions affiliate to political parties would work in practice. As well as a list of proposals, the campaign group have published a sample membership form to demonstrate quite how simply the reform would be to operate.

Currently, disagreement over how party funding from trade unions should be treated is threatening to derail Sir Hayden Phillips’ attempts to form a consensus amongst all political parties on how to reform how political parties are funded. In Preserving the Link, Promoting Transparency, Unlock Democracy propose that trade union members be given the choice between affiliating to the party and contributing to a “General Political Fund” on all membership forms and renewal letters. The contact details of members who choose to affiliate would be passed onto the party so they can be audited and shown to be open and transparent.

With all members able to make an informed choice as to whether or not to affiliate to the party, funding via trade unions could be considered as being the pooled contributions of a number of individuals. The combined amount would therefore not be subject to any cap. In addition, the requirement for a political fund ballot every 10 years, which costs trade unions enormous amounts of money for no discernable benefit, could be repealed.

Commenting on the publication of the report, Director of Unlock Democracy Peter Facey said:

“There is a clear difference between a trade union and a multi-millionaire giving money to a political party. The only issue with how trade unions currently fund the Labour Party is to what extent individual union members are given a say on how their money is spent.

“Very few affiliated trade unions mention that they give money to the Labour Party on their membership forms and recruitment literature. Only UNISON allows members the choice between affiliating to the Labour Party and supporting general political campaigning.

“Our proposals would be very easy to administer – just a couple of tick boxes on a form. They would make it undeniable that trade union members have been fully informed of their affiliation to the party.

“We call on the trade union movement to support these proposals as a strong basis for consensus. It would be a travesty if by seeking to maintain the status quo, the trade union movement allowed multi-millionaires to continue to buy political influence.”
Preserving the Link, Promoting Transparency