Expelling members

The TUC has welcome the government’s “swift action” in proposing new laws giving unions the right to expel members for belonging to a political party.

The proposal came on the day of the Queen’s Speech and follows a legal victory by rail union ASLEF over the UK government regarding the expulsion of a member of the BNP. The government had argued that the union could not exclude someone for belonging to a legal political organisation but the European Court of Human Rights ruled that ASLEF had the right to expel members whose views were “incompatible” with its stated aims.