Union leader attacks reform

TONY BLAIR'S vision of a new electoral system for Britain comes under fire today from one of his closest allies in the union movement.

Ken Jackson, leader of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union, will today accuse the Prime Minister and his advisers of harbouring a "hidden agenda" to break the link between unions and the Labour Party.

Mr Jackson will launch a campaign throughout the Labour movement aimed at undermining the New Labour project of electoral reform to which Mr Blair and Paddy Ashdown, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, committed themselves last week.

The engineering union leader will tell delegates to the AEU's biennial industrial conference that a small group of London-based New Labour activists are hell-bent on creating a Social Democratic Party Mark II.

It is understood that this is a reference to Peter Mandelson, Minister without Portfolio, and his supporters.

Mr Jackson believes the aim is to marginalise unions by creating a coalition involving Liberal Democrats and Left-wing Tories.

His campaign comes ahead of a report from the Electoral Reform Commission, created by Mr Blair and chaired by Lord Jenkins of Hillhead, one of the creators of the SDP.

In a statement, Mr Jackson will tell his union today: "For some in New Labour, proportional representation is the hammer to smash the union link. It is the hidden agenda."

He will say it is an attempt by a small band of New Labour devotees to "split apart the Labour family".

"PR will help them build a political dream of a new SDP," he said. "Our union helped to create New Labour and we will fight against proportional representation. The union link is Labour's link with working people."