This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
Construction union Ucatt announced yesterday that it had written to Tory former home secretary Baron Michael Howard questioning his potential involvement in police infiltration of the union.
As reported in the Morning Star, the Metropolitan Police’s notorious Special Demonstration Squad planted police officer Mark Jenner into Ucatt posing as a carpenter named Mark Cassidy.
He was a Ucatt member from 1996 to 1999, infiltrating a number of left organisations and Mr Howard was home secretary until 1997.
Evidence has emerged that information held by the Consulting Association, which provided blacklists for construction firms, came from police sources.
“Police officers infiltrated Ucatt and other working-class organisations. Surely this can only have been signed off by the Home Office,” said Ucatt general secretary Steve Murphy.
“Did Michael Howard and his ministers know about this operation?”
More than 3,000 construction workers are known to have been blacklisted for being trades union activists or raising health and safety concerns.
“If they did know, we deserve to be told why this activity was sanctioned and if they weren’t told, whose decision was it?” Mr Murphy said.
“Ucatt wants answers. People have had their lives ruined through blacklisting and the covert deployment of the police.”
The union has also written to David Maclean — now Lord Blencathra — who was Mr Howard’s deputy at the Home Office during this time.
“Lord Howard and his colleagues must make public what they know so that the victims of these actions can finally learn the truth,” said Mr Murphy.