The Labour Party could lose out on more than £2 million under its own new trades union funding plans, according to a new poll.
Just 30% of Unite members responding to Lord Ashcroft’s survey, published today, said they would definitely opt into a “political fund”, whereby their cash automatically goes to a party.
Unite is the country’s biggest trade union with almost one and a half million members and the existing automatic levy is worth £3 per person to Labour. It provides the party with £3.25m a year as members have to pro-actively opt out of the system if they don’t want to contribute.
One third of those asked said they did not know whether they contributed to Unite’s political fund, while 30% had opted out.
Most Unite members preferred an opt-in system for the political fund, with only 31% supporting the existing opt-out system.
Of the 712 Unite members interviewed, just 12% said they would fully sign up to become individual members of the Labour Party but 49% pledged to back it if there was an election tomorrow.
Former Conservative Party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft said: “Len McCluskey (Unite’s general secretary) rightly observes that whether individual trade unionists will rally to Labour will depend on whether Miliband gives them ‘reasons to want to be associated’ with the party.
“This is largely about policy, but the policies he himself advocates seem unlikely to have the desired effect.
“McCluskey is quite right that his members are not queuing up to join Labour. And if Miliband takes his advice, nor will they.”
Controversy has broken out over links between the political party and Unite following allegations of vote rigging in the Falkirk candidate selection process.
Police were called in after it emerged that Unite recruited up to 100 new members in an attempt to help its favoured candidate Karie Murphy, an ally of Mr McCluskey, get the nomination.
Prime Minister David Cameron has repeatedly accused Labour of allowing unions to “buy” the party’s policies, candidates and even Mr Miliband’s leadership victory over his brother David.
Unite has given Labour more than £8.4m in funding since Mr Miliband became leader in 2010 but earlier this month he announced plans to change the way that union members give money to the party.
He said union political levy payers would have to “opt in” to join Labour individually, instead of being signed up automatically.
In all 47% thought the Labour Party did a bad job of representing ordinary working people, compared to 42% who thought it did a good job, the survey said.
Perhaps surprisingly, 86% of Unite members supported the Government’s £26,000 benefit cap and 57% opposed Unite’s call for an anti-austerity campaign involving strikes and civil disobedience.
Almost two-thirds of those polled said neither Miliband nor McCluskey really represented them or what they cared about.