Ed Miliband makes plea for votes of Scottish trade unionists

Ed Miliband has made a plea for the vote of Scottish trade unionists in a tacit admission that the union movement is shedding thousands of once-loyal Labour members to the SNP.

The membership of a new Scottish Nationalist trade union group has swollen from 800 members to 14,000 since last autumn in a vivid sign of erosion in Labour's traditional base of Scottish support.

This SNP Trade Union Group is planning to hold its first conference this summer, probably in Stirlingshire, its representatives told the FT.

Mr Miliband, speaking to the Scottish Trades Union Congress in Ayr, 30 miles south of Glasgow, issued a list of the policies a Labour government would enact on behalf of workers - ranging from a ban on zero-hour employment contracts to an inquiry into blacklisting. "Inequality scars our society, it makes us all poorer," he said.

Not long ago a Labour leader did not need to appeal to Scottish union officials for their support. But the SNP is poised to seize up to 30 seats from Labour in the impending general election, which could fatally damage Mr Miliband's prospects of becoming prime minister.

Mr Miliband did not mention the nationalists once in his 15-minute speech. "I ask you for your vote, as the only way to guarantee the back of this Tory government," he told his audience at Ayr racecourse.

The Labour leader cited the role of the labour movement in Scotland in the foundation of his party over a century ago.

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The FT had earlier visited the grave of Keir Hardie in a cemetery in Cumnoch, 15 miles up the road.

Local people had only vague opinions - if any - about the Labour figure. "Never heard of him," said Angie Dynburn, 19, pushing a pram.

Gillian Davies, 58, said she had never visited the gravestone despite living in the village. "The older generation might know about it, but not me, I suppose it might be something they teach in schools?" she said.

The unions have long been the backbone of Labour in Scotland, but their loyalty has been strained by a surge in nationalistic feeling among much of the membership.

Those splits lay dormant for years but were exposed by the independence referendum last September.

The GMB, Aslef, CWU and Asdaw argued against independence as part of the Better Together movement: but Unite and Unison chose to sit on the fence.

Officials from those two unions said that they had so many members who favoured independence that they could not justify taking a strong stance either way - much to the anger of the GMB.

Joe McLeren, an official from the UCATT union, said he had been reasonably impressed by the Miliband speech, adding pointedly: "He didn't have too much of a snipe at the nationalists."

<>Chris McCusker, a founder member of the SNP TUC group, was running a stand at Ayr Racecourse.

He said some sympathetic members had sidled up to his table to show their SNP membership cards. "I said: 'You don't have to do that, it's not a secret society'."

Mr McCusker said that his SNP TUC group might already eclipse Labour membership in Scotland, although he admitted the comparisons were inexact - not least because his group does not charge a fee.

He insisted there was no animosity between SNP union members and their Labour colleagues.

The biggest unions still give large donations to Labour - rather than the SNP - despite the divided loyalties of their memberships.

Malcolm Balfour, another nationalist union member, said: "There shouldn't be a political fund in any union that is for a particular political party any more, they should spend their money on campaigns for the rights of all workers."

Pat Rafferty, the head of Unite in Scotland, agreed to speak to the FT then cancelled the interview.

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