Livingstone calls for union votes

Labour trade unionists are calling on union members throughout the country to support the campaign to get Labour candidate Ken Livingstone re-elected as London mayor, as they feel the election has implications beyond the capital.

The Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation (TULO) has set up an email list, accessed through its website, to enable supporters to keep in touch with the campaign, join online petitions, donate to the campaign and inform others about key issues.

Livingstone wrote recently to trade union members to outline the national implications of the London poll, saying: “This is an election that will starkly stake pro-trade union policies with the policies of a slash and burn Thatcherite in [Tory candidate] Boris Johnson.”

He added that Johnson “is standing on a platform which will take London in the wrong direction and hurt the interests of trade unions.” This includes abolishing the policy that half of all new homes should be affordable and instinctive hostility to public services remaining in public hands.

The campaign can be accessed at www.unionstogether.org.uk/london/