Conduct Of The Prime Minister And Twgu Election

EDM number 509 in 1997-98, proposed by Peter Bottomley on 26/11/1997.

That this House would wish to note and to welcome the Prime Minister's denial that he was backing the challenger in the 1995 TGWU general secretary election; recalls that there appears to be no record of any Labour party press notice denying frequent contrary press reports and that there does not seem to have been any record of any other public statement by the Labour leader during the eight weeks of the election; recalls for example a press report of 1st May 1995 which described Mr Morris as 'probably the most prominent black person in Britain today, who would receive the backing of the T&G's ethnic minority members ...' whilst Mr Dromey 'enjoys the private support of Mr Blair'; recalls the report of 20th May that the Labour leader's prestige was hanging on the increasingly bitter fight between his personal nominee and 'moderniser' candidate Jack Dromey, and the union's current boss; notes the report of 21st June that Mr Blair let it be known he favoured Mr Dromey; and further recalls the report of 24th June under the headline 'Morris wins "Blair" fight' the lines 'decisively beating off a strong challenge from Jack Dromey, the candidate supported by Tony Blair' and 'The Labour leader, a TGWU-sponsored MP, and made no secret of his backing for Mr Dromey, though he stopped short of a public endorsement".

This motion has been signed by a total of 1 MPs.