LETTER: Union members are funding the Labour Party

I WANTED to draw your readers’ attention to something they might not be aware of.

Both of my parents are members of separate unions, Unison and Unite, and over Christmas we had a chat about this. I fully support them being union members, and in the jobs they do I’d be pretty surprised if they weren’t.

What did surprise me is that they are both paying towards the political fund of their respective unions, for two different reasons. This might not be a surprise to most, but as I am a Conservative councillor and campaign manager I’d have thought they’d rather not fund the Labour Party when they helped to get me elected.

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It turns out they don’t want to fund the Labour Party. My mum wasn’t even aware she was funding them, and shockingly my dad was told he had no option but to pay into that fund. So I did some digging around.

When you join a union, paying into their political fund is an opt out but that isn’t made clear. So people end up inadvertently funding the Labour Party. Furthermore, you can’t be forced to pay part of your subs to the Labour Party at all.

I wanted to bring this to the attention of your readers as there may well be others out there who are union members but don’t want to fund Ed Miliband and the Labour Party, or they may not even be aware that they are doing! If they want any advice how to stop their money going to the Labour Party they can contact me at [email protected].

COUN. PAUL WHITE

Campaign Manager

Pendle Conservatives