Tory MPs failed to win 50% mandate

Unite General Secretary, Len McCluskey

Not a single Tory cabinet member achieved the 50 percent voting threshold they wish to impose on workers taking industrial action, reveals new research from Unite.

Following Tory calls to harden Britain’s draconian anti-trade union laws, Unite has analysed the 2010 general election results, finding that when total potential turnout is included not a single Tory MP won 50 percent.

Len McCluskey, Unite general secretary said: “It is utter hypocrisy for the government to talk about mandates for trade unions when not a single member of the present cabinet would have been elected using the same criteria.

“The fact is not a single councillor in England has won 50 percent of the electorate, not a single MEP has reached the 50 percent threshold, Boris Johnson scraped in with just 37 percent in 2008 and the government’s flagship Police Crime Commissioner election gained a risible 17 percent of the vote.

“This government has no mandate to attack trade unions or the workers who have been forced to take industrial action today in their fight to end poverty pay.”

The study shows that the cabinet member with the lowest percentage of the vote was David Jones, the Welsh Secretary who secured the support of just 27 percent of the electorate in his seat of Clwyd West in 2010. Not far behind comes the recently appointed Secretary of State for Culture Sajid Javid who came to office with the support of only 30.8 percent of the electorate in his constituency of Bromsgrove in 2010.

The member of the cabinet who comes closest to winning a 50 percent mandate is Home Secretary Theresa May in her constituency of Maidenhead, although even she falls short of by 7 percent.

Those MPs who have been most vocal in their attacks on workers taking action today, achieved the most risible results.

Union bashing Priti Patel managed to win the support of just over a third (36.6 percent) of the electorate in Witham, while the architect of the Conservative party’s manifesto Oliver Letwin gained the support of just 35.5 percent of the electorate in Dorset.

Len McCluskey, Unite general secretary said: “Britain’s anti-trade union laws are already amongst the most restrictive in Europe. Tory attempts to further curtail the rights of working people to democratically organise risks placing Cameron’s Britain alongside nations like Kazakhstan, Albania and Niger where the right for public servants to take action is forbidden.”