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  1. Politics
3 July 2013

Why McCluskey’s statement of support is bad for Miliband

By choosing to answer the question "who runs Labour?" the Unite general secretary has suggested the answer was in doubt.

By George Eaton

After David Cameron devoted most of PMQs to attacking Unite, Len McCluskey has returned fire, rightly criticising Cameron for cheapening “the office of prime minister” by responding to a question on food banks with a diatribe against the union. He said: 

David Cameron showed today that he has nothing to say to the people of this country who are suffering because of his government’s shambolic handling of the economy. 

He dismissed questions on food banks in order to point score and cheapened the office of prime minister by signalling loudly and clearly that he does not care about people’s real worries. 

He may have an obsession with me and Unite the union, but I can assure him it’s one that is not shared by the one million young people stuck on the dole, or at the food banks turning people away or among the patients being treated in hospital corridors. 

He also reminded the millions of trade unionists in this country that they are not welcome in the Conservative party, and indeed that they hold trade union members in contempt. 

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McCluskey has also declared that “There can be absolutely no question about who runs the Labour party: it is Ed Miliband and he has my full support”. But while this might appear to be a supportive statement, it is not one Miliband is likely to welcome. By choosing to answer the question posed by the Tories – who runs Labour? – (“it is Ed Miliband”), McCluskey has suggested that the answer was somehow in doubt. And that, to borrow Cameron’s word of choice, certainly makes Miliband look “weak”. 

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