Knee-jerk disputesover cuts'will angerthe public'

Jonathan Reed Political Editor

CALLING “knee-jerk” strikes over spending cuts will simply alienate the public, Shadow Home Secretary Alan Johnson has warned “finger-jabbing” union leaders as he urged his own party not to automatically oppose every decision.

Mr Johnson, a former union official, said strikes should be used “very sparingly”, if at all, and challenged leaders to engage constructively with the Government as “persuaders not deniers” rather than angering the public by walking out.

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The Hull West and Hessle MP also challenged Labour not to oppose every cut put forward by the coalition simply out of instinct, and said the party must unite once its new leader is announced today and start a “new era” or face another long spell in opposition.

With one of the Miliband brothers Ed and David poised to be crowned leader at a special event in Manchester ahead of the start of the party’s annual conference, Mr Johnson told the Yorkshire Post the party would be “unforgiving” of anyone who tried to return to “destructive” in-fighting of the Blair-Brown years.

“The history of politics is the public don’t vote for disunited parties,” he warned. In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Johnson said he has no regrets about not running for the leadership – although he is keen to stay on in the Shadow Cabinet – and says he would have been “found out” if he had challenged for it because he could not make the commitment the job demands.

He also criticised two of the leadership candidates – fellow Yorkshire MPs Ed Balls and Ed Miliband – for advocating a graduate tax to fund university education instead of tuition fees, which he was responsible for introducing as a minister, saying he was “surprised and disappointed”.

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Mr Johnson, who has backed David Miliband for the party leadership, accused the Liberal Democrats of “deceit” by signing up to a coalition programme to rapidly cut spending but said Labour should direct their attack on the Conservatives.

However, he cautioned against mass strikes which have been suggested by union radicals such as transport workers’ union chief Bob Crow, backing the more considered stance of TUC leader Brendan Barber.

“There’s always a couple of finger jabbers that everyone kind of applauds then ignores,” Mr Johnson added.

“The trade union movement is not Bob Crow, the trade union movement is better epitomised by Brendan Barber whose very considered, very well thought out, measured, statement on the Monday of the TUC I think caught the mood.

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“The central goal they’ll set out is to persuade the public they’re on the public’s side and working with the public to actually protect public services.

“And you don’t do that by taking the knee-jerk reaction to withdraw public services. So I think the strike weapon, if used at all, should be used very sparingly.”

Mr Johnson, a former postal workers leader, said Labour also needed to avoid opposing every cut on a knee-jerk basis, but said there was a “difference in scale” between spending cuts which Labour would have imposed and those the coalition is making.

On calls for Mr Balls and the younger Miliband for a graduate tax to replace tuition fees, Mr Johnson said: “I like the two lads dearly, but I can’t understand why they are pushing the graduate tax and even going further in suggesting the introduction of tuition fees was one of the things we got wrong. It wasn’t.”

He added: “I don’t know whether the two Eds actually know what we put into practice, but it’s a graduate tax without the down side.”