‘Weak’ Miliband savaged on unions

In a highly personal attack, Mr Gove will say Mr Miliband’s “weak” leadership on the issue shows he is incapable of standing up for the concerns of “hardworking people”.

The leading Conservative will compare the current Labour leader unfavourably with Neil Kinnock, who took the party to two election defeats, and suggest a government led by Mr Miliband would resemble the Labour administration of the late 1970s which was plagued by industrial disputes.

Mr Gove’s speech appears carefully timed to capitalise on the criticisms Mr Miliband has received from his own ranks in recent weeks and to return attention to the issue of Labour’s relationship with the unions ahead of the TUC annual meeting next month.

Labour was embroiled in controversy earlier this year when it was suggested that the Unite union had attempted to unduly influence the selection of the party’s election candidate in Falkirk. A party investigation has yet to report.

In his speech today, Mr Gove will argue that Mr Miliband’s theme of “One Nation politics” is being undermined by the influence of unions including Unite.

He will say: “Tony Blair once argued that the Labour Party should not be the political arm of the trade union movement but the political movement of the British nation as a whole. That’s what One Nation politics means.

“But, sadly, Labour are now sinking back into their pre-Blair position of living in the unions’ shadow.”

In the wake of the Falkirk row, Mr Miliband set out a series of proposals over the future relationship between Labour and the unions but Mr Gove will criticise the Doncaster North MP for not going far enough.

He will say the comparison to Neil Kinnock’s battle against the Militant Tendency in the 1980s is “not at all flattering to Ed Miliband”.

“While Kinnock moved bravely and remorselessly to eradicate Militant’s influence and Militant-sponsored MPs from Labour Miliband has done nothing to stop the takeover of his own party,” he will say.

“The sad truth is that – charming, intelligent, eloquent, thoughtful, generous and chivalrous as Ed Miliband may be – in this critical test of leadership he has been uncertain, irresolute, weak.

“To the question – who governs Labour? His answer would appear to be – increasingly – the unions.

“And if Ed Miliband is too weak stand up to the union bosses who pick his candidates, buy his policies and anointed him leader, then he simply will be too weak to stand up for hardworking people.

“Our country cannot afford – as we had in the Seventies – the same old Labour party with a weak leader buffeted by union pressure to adopt policies only they want and asking hardworking people to pay the bills.”

In recent weeks Mr Miliband has been the focus of questions about his leadership and come in for criticism along with the wider Shadow Cabinet for failing to make more of an impact over the summer months.

He is expected to respond with a reshuffle of his frontbench team which includes eight Yorkshire MPs.

Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg and Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Liam Byrne are thought to be on their way out while Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves, currently Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, is tipped for promotion.

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