AN INDEPENDENT inquiry into alleged collusion of Unite officials in the blacklisting of construction workers has started gathering evidence from witnesses. 

It comes two years after the union’s leader Len McCluskey commissioned the probe to investigate claims that Unite officials had secretly passed on information to construction bosses to assist them in compiling a blacklist of thousands of workers. 

The review, carried out by a team of independent lawyers headed by Jane McNeill QC, will examine claims that collusion involved officials still working for Unite as well as officials who worked for its predecessor unions. 

The allegations span three decades up to 2009.

Details of the inquiry’s scope, issued today, show that lawyers will also look into recent allegations and those made outside the time period when blacklist firms the Economic League and the Consulting Association were in operation. 

The Blacklist Support Group, which campaigned for the probe to take place, urged those with evidence to come forward after Unite said today that the inquiry is appealing for witness statements and information.

The group’s secretary, Dave Smith, said that members welcomed the confirmation that Ms McNeill will oversee the investigation after concerns were expressed that the long-awaited inquiry had ground to a halt.

“We repeat our call for all candidates to be Unite general secretary to confirm that the investigation will reach its conclusion, and if any official, past or current, is criticised in the final report, that they will be named and appropriate disciplinary action to be taken,” he said. 

Unite executive council member and blacklisted electrician Frank Morris also welcomed the probe but stressed that investigators must thoroughly examine allegations including searching within the union’s archives and emails of conrtactors.

While welcoming the “wide” scope of the inquiry, lawyer Paul Heron said that allegations of police and secret services collusion in blacklisting should have been “explicitly referenced.” 

Mr Heron — who represented actor and blacklisted worker Ricky Tomlinson and Arthur Murray recently in the Court of Appeal against convictions relating to picketing during a construction strike in the early 1970s at the culmination of longstanding campaigns for justice for the Shrewsbury 24 — said that other unions with similar accusations levelled against them should also hold their own investigations. 

Major construction firms have been forced to pay out millions of pounds in compensation to more than 1,100 workers after they illegally compiled confidential files of left-wing and trade union activists in order to keep them out of work.