Firefighters withdraw from Labour

Delegates at the Fire Brigades Union annual conference voted by a large majority to disaffiliate from the Labour Party last month, while the CWU communications union threatened to stop funding the party if it doesn't commit to keeping Royal Mail public.

The FBU became the first union to quit the party voluntarily, after delegates backed the resolution for total disaffiliation by 35,105 votes to 14,611. They rejected a leadership compromise of cutting back on the level of financial support from £50,000 a year to £20,000.

Moving the motion, Northern Ireland delegate Tony Maguire said the government had "demonised" the union during the long pay dispute. "The party ... has stabbed us not in the back but in the heart," he told delegates.

As well as the symbolic implications of the break, the union's decision will deprive the party of £50,000 a year as well as practical support on the ground at election times.

The move follows the ejection of the RMT transport union from the party in February after it allowed some of its branches to back the Scottish Socialist Party.

Delegates at the CWU conference rejected a motion to break from the party, but agreed to suspend its £300,000 annual support if the party did not give a commitment in its manifesto that the Royal Mail would not be privatised.