Crawley MP, Henry Smith, has today demanded that the local Labour Party come clean and give assurances that the Unite union have not been allowed to sign up members without their knowledge; as has been alleged in Falkirk with 14 other Labour associations put under ‘special measures’.

Commenting, Henry said:

“Following recent reports that Unite have been signing up their members for Labour Party membership in Falkirk without their members’ knowledge or consent, I’m deeply concerned that the Unite union – which has identified 41 ‘target seats’ of its own to fight for within the Labour movement ahead of the 2015 general election – may be seeking to manipulate the Crawley Labour Party’s selection process and exert unfair influence.

“Given that the local Labour group are planning to select their parliamentary candidate this month, they must urgently review their membership list to ensure that there is no undue influence from the town’s local Unite branch. 

“I believe in the longer term, Labour need to join with the Conservatives in selecting parliamentary candidates through open primaries - where everyone gets a say on who gets on the ballot paper as part of our drive for greater transparency and choice.

"What’s certain is that, given the week’s events leading to Labour’s leadership crisis and the resignation of the their senior election coordinator (despite Ed Miliband’s request for him to stay on), the Crawley Labour Party need to review their procedures and membership register ahead of any further election process.”

The Unite union has so far donated £8.4 million since Ed Milband’s tenure as Opposition Leader despite the fact that research outlined in one of the Union’s recently leaked reports which demonstrated that only 35 to 40 percent of their members voted for Labour in 2010.  

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