Rail Union set to dump Labour in favour of SSP

Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union, sounded the warning as the union prepared for its annual conference in Glasgow later today.

Mr Crow claimed relations with Labour were "very fragile", and declared: "The New Labour government has been a disaster for us." And, in what represented a major fillip for the Scottish Socialist Party, he warned the union was likely to reduce its funding of Labour and to look increasingly to the SSP in Scotland.

Asked about his union’s funding for Labour’s election kitty, he told BBC Radio Scotland’s Eye to Eye programme: "I think we are going to severely reduce it again.

"We reduced it severely last year, and I think we are going to reduce it again this year. We will be looking for people like the Scottish Socialist Party to campaign for us."

He said of the SSP: "They want to renationalise the railway network, new Labour doesn’t - so why should our members carry on supporting them?"

Mr Crow said his union’s Scottish members were increasingly viewing the SSP as a better alternative to Labour.

"Certainly I believe we will be looking to support the SSP," he said.

"Our position at the moment is that we will remain affiliated to the Labour Party until somebody else comes along.

"That could well be the SSP. If they are going to campaign for stopping Caledonian MacBrayne being sold off, if they’re going to fight for the renationalisation of the railway, I think our members in Scotland will look to support the SSP."

At present, however, there was no alternative party for his union in England, although in Wales it backed an independent member of the Welsh Assembly, said Mr Crow.

"In England at the moment, we haven’t an alternative and that’s why we are sticking with New Labour," he said.

"But certainly in Scotland there is an alternative, and if that alternative is the SSP and that’s what our members want, then we will affiliate to them."

Another blow to Labour came when Sir Bill Morris, the outgoing Transport and General Workers’ Union leader, said Labour’s links with the unions should be subject to an official review.

Tony Woodley, his successor as leader of the Transport and General Workers Union, has already threatened to cut financial support for the party.

Sir Bill said unions should continue to support the party even if they disagreed with individual government policies. But he called on ministers to abandon the "ideological free zone" of the third way. He also proposed a commission to review Labour’s union links.

"There should be a joint commission of, say, the Labour Party and the trade unions chaired by a neutral person to look at the relationship for the 21st Century," he said.

The move would allow them "take this relationship forward, giving the opportunity for trade unions to contribute positively".

Sir Bill stressed: "One thing is clear. We are not about money for policy."