Echoes of the Falkirk Scandal

The news has been full of the latest Labour Party scandal - the weighting of the candidate selection committees for selecting MPs and MEPs in favour of Unite members. Allegedly, this is a common problem in some parts of the country. But not a lot has been said about how powerful the unions are in local councils, such as my own Sunderland. Being of a nosy disposition, I went to the members’ interest pages of the council website to have a look…

	Number of councillors on council	In a union	Not in a union
Labour	64	44	20
Conservative	8	1	7
Independent	3	1	2
Total	46	46	29

In other words, 44/64 Labour councillors in Sunderland declare a union membership – 68%, as opposed to 1/8 or 12% of Conservatives and 1/3 of the independents.

Let’s get more detailed – is Unite making a power grab in Sunderland…?

Union	Total
GMB	24
UNITE	10
UNISON	5
NASWT	2
PROSPECT	2
NUT	2
CWU	2
USDAW	2
Union of Construction, Allied, Trades and Technicians	1
ATL	1
	51

In actual fact, Unite isn’t the power broker in Sunderland, nor is Unison, which is a pity, as their members are most affected, so I’m told, by the library closures. 5 councillors isn’t a particularly big power bloc. No the big winner in Sunderland is GMB, who seem to be far more subtle in their machinations than the loudly blustering Unite, with its 10 councillors. The GMB has 24/75 councillors – 32%, and the leader of the council also claims allegiance to GMB. Power play?

Several other small points. You may notice that the total claiming union membership is 51, whereas in the top table it was 51. Not a mistake – in fact several of our esteemed councillors are following the hedge-your-bets strategy, and joining more than one union. When I was in a union, the subs were over £120 a year, so I hope it’s worth it. Which brings me onto something else interesting. Many of the councillors list their unions as contributing to their coffers in one way or another, either from political funds, or as elected union officials claiming remuneration for services. Though I wasn’t looking at that, I counted at least 20 councillors being paid small sums, which were listed on their declaration of interest forms. The majority of these came from GMB. A modest stipend from the political fund or a generous payment? I don’t know; some of the councillors have been elected for many years so small sums could rapidly add up, though this information is not on the council website.

I went to the Electoral Comission’s very obscuring website and typed in GMB as a donor – in total since 2001, they’ve given £18,684,748.98 I can't locate (as yet) detailed breakdowns by area or the party accounts, but I will...

Don't you just love power politics!

Here’s the full list, handily clickable to go to that councillor’s declarations.

Ward	Name	Elected	Party	Union?	Declared payment?
Barnes	Councillor Rebecca Atkinson	2012	LAB	x
	Councillor Michael Essl	2010	LAB	GMB
	Councillor Lee Martin	2004	CON	X
Castle	Councillor Stephen Foster	2011	LAB	Unite
	Councillor Doris MacKnight	2010	LAB	Unite, GMB
	Councillor Denny Wilson	2007	LAB	AMICUS/(now unite)
Copt Hill	Councillor Robert Heron	1991	LAB	GMB
	Councillor Derrick Smith	2008	IND	X
	Councillor Colin Wakefield	2007	IND	Prospect (ret)
Doxford	Councillor David Errington	2007	LAB	Unison
	Councillor Elizabeth Gibson	2004	LAB	Unison (ret)	paid
	Councillor Christine Marshall	2012	LAB	x
Fulwell	Councillor Bob Francis	2008	CON	X
	Councillor George Howe	1996	CON	X
	Councillor John Scott Wiper	2011	CON	X
Hendon	Councillor Thomas Martin	2007	LAB	NUT
	Councillor Barbara McClennan	2007	LAB	X
	Councillor Michael Mordey	2009	LAB	Unite
Hetton	Councillor Florence Anderson	1991	LAB	GMB
	Councillor James Blackburn	2004	LAB	GMB
	Councillor Richard David Tate	1979	LAB	GMB /CWU
Houghton	Councillor Sheila Ellis	2008	IND	X
	Councillor Dennis Richardson	2004	LAB	AMICUS/(now unite)	paid
	Gemma Louise Taylor	2013	LAB	X
Millfield	Councillor Iain William Kay	2010	LAB	Unite
	Councillor Bob Price	2012	LAB	Unite/GMB
	Councillor Lynda Scanlan	2011	LAB	X
Pallion	Councillor Cecilia Gofton	2006	LAB	X
	Councillor Paul Watson	1997	LAB	GMB
	Councillor Amy Wilson	2004	LAB	Usdaw	paid
Redhill	Councillor Richard Bell	2000	LAB	UCATT	paid
	Councillor Ronny Davison	2012	LAB	GMB	Union Executive
	Councillor Paul Stewart	1990	LAB	Unison	paid
Ryhope	Councillor Ellen Ball	2007	LAB	AMICUS/(now unite)	paid
	Councillor Alan Emerson	2010	LAB	Prospect
	Councillor Anthony Farr	2012	LAB	NUT/NASWT
Sandhill	Councillor David Allan	1983	LAB	UNITE/GMB	paid (Unite)
	Councillor Mary Turton	2012	LAB	Usdaw
	Councillor Debra Waller	2011	LAB	X
Shiney Row	Councillor Anne Lawson	1998	LAB	GMB	paid
	Councillor John Scott	2004	LAB	GMB
	Councillor Melville Speding	2000	LAB	GMB	paid
Silksworth	Councillor Peter Gibson	1986	LAB	X
	Councillor Patricia Smith	1999	LAB	GMB	paid
	Councillor Philip Tye	2006	LAB	GMB	paid
Southwick	Councillor Rosalind Copeland	2008	LAB	X
	Councillor Christine Shattock	2007	LAB	Unison
	Councillor Norma Wright	2000	LAB	GMB	paid
St Annes	Councillor Lisa Smiles	2011	LAB	x
	Councillor Susan Watson	2003	LAB	GMB
	Councillor Thomas Wright	2002	LAB	GMB	paid
St Chads	Councillor Darryl Oliver Dixon	2012	LAB	X
	Councillor Robert Oliver	2004	CON	ATL
	Councillor Stuart Porthouse	2003	LAB	X
St Michaels	Councillor Margaret Forbes	1983	CON	X
	Councillor Paul Maddison	2004	CON	X
	Councillor Peter Wood	1999	CON	X
St Peters	Councillor Stephen Bonallie	2010	LAB	GMB	paid
	Councillor Barry Curran	2011	LAB	Unite	paid
	Councillor Julia Jackson	2012	LAB	NASWT
Washington Central	Councillor Len Lauchlan	2011	LAB	Unite (branch sec)	Paid
	Councillor Dianne Snowdon	2008	LAB	x
	Councillor Linda Williams	2004	LAB	x
Washington East	Councillor Fiona Miller	2011	LAB	x
	Councillor Neville Padgett	2010	LAB	x
	Councillor David Snowdon	2012	LAB	x
Washington North	Councillor Jill Fletcher	2006	LAB	GMB	paid
	Councillor John Kelly	2008	LAB	GMB	paid
	Councillor Peter Walker	2004	LAB	Unison	paid
Washington South	Councillor Louise Farthing	2012	LAB	x
	Councillor Graeme Miller	2006	LAB	GMB	paid
	Councillor George Thompson	2011	LAB	x
Washington West	Councillor Bernard Scaplehorn	2008	LAB	GMB	paid
	Councillor Dorothy Trueman	2010	LAB	x
	Councillor Henry Trueman	1995	LAB	CWU	paid