text: All the smiles cannot hide the reality that McCluskey and his union are a potent, sinister force in British politics . Out on the election campaign trail under blue skies in South Wales, the trade union firebrand's manner was as warm as the weather. 'Didn't you once call me a slab-faced Marxist?' the famously militant leader of Unite asked me with a grin that was more genial than menacing. I had to confess I had. But that did not stop 'Red' Len McCluskey giving me the time of day on a street in Neath as he conducted a two-day tour of the Principality to drum up support for Labour's cause. Watching him in action, it was clear that he is highly popular with activists. His gospel of traditional hard-left socialism goes down well with the converted, as does his hackneyed anti-Conservative bile. 'We look to Wales as a beacon of hope to show what a Labour government can do. The Tories might have the money but we've got the working people on our side,' he said to cheers and applause. Yet all the smiles cannot hide the reality that McCluskey and his union are a potent, sinister force in British politics, seeking to use their financial and organisational muscle within the Labour movement to drag Britain back to the dark days of the 1970s. As the Mail reveals today, the sheer scale of the influence Unite holds on scores of Labour candidates is chilling given the socialist revolution the union would seek to impose. Indeed, McCluskey, a former Liverpool dock worker who keeps a drawing of Lenin in his office and once boasted of presiding over more strikes than any other union boss, is quite open about his yearning for that period when the unions held the government to ransom: 'We are supposed to believe that the Seventies was a horrible time. It wasn't. It was a time of great advances for working people,' he has said. Labour's umbilical link to McCluskey's union has received much less attention in recent days than a potential deal with the left-wing, anti-austerity SNP, yet it is just as potentially disastrous for the governance of this country. Not only is Unite – which has a claimed membership of 1.42million – intertwined with the Labour Party's structure, MPs and finances, but it also remains addicted to the failed socialist policies of the past, including a major expansion in the public sector, less flexibility in the workplace, higher taxation and ever more state spending. Just like Nicola Sturgeon, McCluskey wants to make Labour bolder, 'more radical, courageous and brave'. Only last month, he appeared to threaten illegal action if a Tory Government pushed through further restrictions on strikes in the public sector. 'When the law is misguided, when it oppresses people and removes their freedoms, can we respect it? I am not really posing the question, I'm giving the answer. It ain't going to happen,' he declared. Despite all his talk about the oppression of working people, however, he has not done badly for himself. Last year it was revealed he received a £5,000 rise, taking his pay and pensions package to £140,281. McCluskey has denied that he has too much influence over Ed Miliband, adding that Unite is supporting the party '100 per cent' McCluskey's determination to influence Labour was all too evident in Wales. With an air of quasi-regal grandeur, he visited several factories, gave talks to Labour activists and held a number of photo opportunities – including one in Cardiff at the statute of that old champagne socialist Nye Bevan. When I spoke to McCluskey, he downplayed his hardline socialism, instead talking about the need for investment in industry and the economy. And he denied that he had too much influence over Ed Miliband's party: 'If only that were true,' he said, while proclaiming his loyalty to the cause. 'Unite is supporting Labour 100 per cent,' he said, adding that is now campaigning 'all over the country'. Yet there was something synthetic about McCluskey's protestations of support for Labour. As I watched him at close quarters, it became more apparent that he was going through the motions. When asked in an interview with BBC Radio Wales about Miliband's leadership, McCluskey could say only: 'He's doing OK'. Beneath the surface, I have no doubt he longs to hear Ed offering more nakedly socialist policies, rather than trying to appeal to Middle England. Moreover, if Labour and Unite really think that McCluskey is an asset in the election, they are doing their best to keep quiet about it. When I tried to find out McCluskey's schedule for his Welsh visit from any number of Unite and Labour sources, including McCluskey's own press officer, I was greeted with either hostility or silence. No one would give me any information. It was only through persistence and good luck that I managed to track him down, to the outrage of his press officer who asked me paranoiacally: 'How did you find us? Did you fit a tracking device to Len's car?' That kind of anxiety and suspicion shows more than just a lack of confidence. It reveals a fear that, just as with Sturgeon's spendthrift radicalism, the hard-Left dogma of Unite is likely to alienate floating middle-of-the-road voters. Such fears are, of course, only too justified. For this is no small-town demagogue. On the contrary, McCluskey is pivotal to Labour's future because of the stranglehold his union has over the party. It was Unite and the other affiliated unions that ensured Ed Miliband was elected leader in 2010 against his more moderate brother David, who enjoyed greater popularity among Labour MPs and the rank and file. Since 2010, Unite is estimated to have donated at least £14.4million to Labour's coffers. It was Unite and the other affiliated unions that ensured Ed Miliband (pictured left) was elected leader in 2010 against his more moderate brother David (right) The dominance of Unite runs right through Labour's organisation, with huge implications for the make-up of a putative Miliband government. One recent analysis showed that 159 Labour MPs from the last parliament receive sponsorship from Unite or are members of the union, including senior frontbenchers such as Harriet Harman, Angela Eagle, Hilary Benn and Sadiq Khan. In addition, 133 Labour candidates at this election are reported to have links to Unite. As Martin Mayer, chairman of Unite's political committee and a member of Labour's National Executive recently admitted, the union is involved in a 'serious attempt to win back the party'. Tragically for Britain, there is now a real danger that an incoming Labour government would be forced to lurch even further to the Left, not just by SNP by also by Unite, with Miliband too weak to stand up to those who are determined he will be their puppet in Downing Street.
target: The scale of influence Unite holds is chilling given what it seeks to impose .
  It remains addicted to the failed socialist policies of Britain's past .
  Mr McClusky denies holding too much power over Labour's Ed Miliband .