Union call to break links with Labour

The battle for control of the Labour Party is set to reach a new intensity, with senior trade unionists loyal to Tony Blair planning a campaign to end the 79-year link with the unions.

A highly sensitive document leaked to The Independent urges an end to annual affiliation fees - the mechanism by which unions bankroll the party - and calls for unions to divert some of their political funds elsewhere, possibly to other political parties. The proposal will fuel the frustration and fear of party stalwarts about the pace and direction of party change.

There is an underlying suspicion, which some Cabinet members share, that the Prime Minister is plotting to distance himself from the old- guard unions. Moreover, the establishment of Cabinet links with the Liberal Democrats is thought to be part of a fundamental realignment of the party for the millennium.

The controversial paper on the union link, meant for publication by the Fabian Society, is signed by Alan Johnson, who recently resigned as joint leader of the Communication Workers' Union to become an MP, and Tony Young, Joint General Secretary of the union. It is thought that the society, together with Mr Young and Mr Johnson, are planning a fringe meeting at October's Brighton party conference which would initiate a political offensive aimed at separating what are still sometimes called the "two wings of the labour movement".

The prospective Fabian pamphlet, Labour's Relations? What can the trade union movement offer the new Labour Government? will enrage the parliamentary left and most union leaders.

A secret meeting of leaders of most of the Labour's largest affiliates, told party officials last Tuesday that they had serious misgivings about Labour's Party Into Power consultative report, which calls for a weakening of the constitutional links through the conference and national executive of the party.

Even John Edmonds, general Secretary of the GMB union, who broke ranks with his senior colleagues, may have difficulty in stomaching some of the proposals in the pamphlet.

Labour's national executive is due to finalise its position on the consultative report on Wednesday. In the pamphlet, Mr Young and Mr Johnson distinguish between unions and party, and urge new alliances.

"There is a good case to argue that unions' political activities and expenditure should be far more independent of Labour," it says. "For example, unions might offer no endorsements at election time as such, but develop techniques to make their members aware of the key issues affecting them."

While the authors acknowledge that trade unionists will always play an active role in the Labour Party, they emphasise that it should be as individual members. The paper decries unions' "oppositionalist" stance towards the Party Into Power proposals, saying: "Undoubtedly there are those that still regard Labour as the political wing of the trade union movement - an errant child that needs discipline... While this is an absurd view, it is the unions and not Labour that will suffer from such a misapprehension."

Nevertheless, suspicion of and disaffection with the leadership's aims and motives is deep-seated and widespread; from the rank-and-file to the ranks of the Cabinet, from Roy Hattersley to Tony Benn.

Mr Benn wrote in yesterday's Observer: "By the end of this Parliament ... it is possible that this project will have been completed and this new party will closely resemble the American Democratic Party backed by big business and with no meaningful links with the Labour Party or the labour movement."

Mr Hattersley wrote in Saturday's Guardian: "It is hard to describe New Labour as a democratic socialist party and, much to his credit, Tony Blair has always been frank about his wish to create what he calls the radical centre-ground of politics. That creates problems for those of us for whom equality is an article of faith."

From the union left wing, Lew Adams, the Aslef train drivers' union leader, told BBC's Breakfast with Frost: "This Government appears to be listening to the Liberals and the CBI ... why don't they listen to the trade unions?"

A Labour spokesman said Mr Adams was the only critic the BBC could find.