by Paul Donovan

Communication workers stepped up their campaign yesterday to get more working-class people elected to public office.

Delegates to CWU annual conference in Bournemouth unanimously agreed to push Labour to put up more working-class candidates, despite coming up against stern opposition from the Blairite Progress faction of the party.

South-west regional secretary Kevin Beazer recalled a meeting with Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman and other MPs a couple of years ago where all agreed that there needed to be more trade union and working-class representation in Parliament.

“We’ve been trying to get trade union members elected but have been thwarted. The Labour Party has got to come clean about our having involvement or not,” he said.

But north-west regional secretary Carl Webb said there’d been some success in his region when unions had worked with union/Labour liaison organisation Tulo.

“It has been noticeable that where the unions have been split it has let in the Progress candidate,” said Mr Webb.

“Tulo is the machinery we should be using. We also need to get more trade unionists to join the Labour Party.”

CWU general secretary Billy Hayes said that recent changes to the union link had caused “a serious and profound change” in relations with the Labour Party.

He supported the aim of getting working-class members into Parliament but warned that it cannot be a panacea — recalling the union’s former general secretary Alan Johnson, who went on to become an arch-new Labourite.