The Labour leadership blocked Karie Murphy (pictured), a Unite candidate, from the Labour shortlist for the marginal seat of Halifax . The tweet about Harriet Harman from a senior unnamed official at Unite, Britain’s most powerful trade union, was short and menacing: ‘She will have to answer for her actions in due course.’ The threat this week was made in response to the Labour leadership blocking Karie Murphy, a Unite candidate, from the Labour shortlist for the marginal seat of Halifax. And the reason for their fury at the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party? The list was agreed by an ad-hoc three-strong committee chaired by Harman. And that committee was given a clear instruction by Ed Miliband: block Karie Murphy at all costs. Relations between Miliband and the union were put under further strain when Linda Riordan, the retiring Halifax Labour MP, accused the party leadership of dirty tricks. She has made a formal protest to Iain McNicol, Labour’s general secretary. But the heavyweight the front bench should be really worried about is Len McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite, who is enraged by the actions of Miliband and Harman. For he is the most powerful Left-wing union boss since miners’ leader Arthur Scargill. The snub to flame-haired Murphy, a comprehensive school-educated NHS nurse, is deeply personal to McCluskey - who was married but is no longer with his wife. McCluskey and Murphy - who is separated from her husband - are very close friends. Indeed, some people in the Labour movement have asked - rightly or wrongly - if they are more than just friends. It’s also personal for McCluskey because Harman is a member of Unite, and she presided over the blocking of their candidate. So why was the usually clueless Miliband so determined to stop Murphy? The answer is to be found far to the north of Halifax, in Falkirk, where Karie Murphy’s candidacy in the Labour selection process in 2013 triggered a vote-rigging scandal so serious the police were called in by Miliband. The result then was virtual open warfare in the party. Now, the animus is erupting again. Murphy was cleared of any wrongdoing in an internal inquiry but withdrew from the selection race. In the end, the police took no action over allegations the union had packed the local party with its own supporters, and even signed people up to vote for her without their knowledge. But the damage was done, and her Parliamentary ambitions were thwarted. After the Falkirk row, Miliband - who pointedly refused to apologise to Murphy — announced reforms to the party’s links with the unions. Furious: Len McCluskey (pictured), the general secretary of Unite, is enraged by the actions of Miliband and Harman . But that attempt at firm leadership came at a price, and the response from Unite was swift and damaging. It withheld £1.5 million from the Labour Party, which has debts of £11 million. Now, Miliband has crossed McCluskey again and — only weeks before the General Election — senior Unite officials are privately plotting how to wreak their revenge for the latest rebuff to Murphy’s parliamentary ambitions. Miliband can ill-afford to make an enemy of McCluskey and Unite, for no other modern Labour leader has had to rely so heavily on one union to ensure the financial survival of the party. Since Miliband became leader, Unite has given Labour an astonishing £14.3 million. The union has pledged a further £1.5 million for the election campaign, but may now withdraw that offer. It could also inflict huge logistical damage on the campaign. In October, the union set up Unite Activists For Labour ‘to support getting Labour back into power to prevent the Tory-led Coalition from wreaking any more damage upon the economy . . . and further attacking trade union and workers’ rights’. They are ready to launch operations in the key marginals of Cambridge, Chelmsford, Luton, Great Yarmouth — where Ukip is battling Labour to try to overturn a 4,000 Tory majority — Ipswich, which the Tories held last time with a 2,000 majority, and Norwich South, where the Lib Dems are defending a wafer-thin 300 majority from Labour. The Unite activists will help with telephone and door-to-door canvassing, fundraising, transporting voters to polling stations and, crucially, ensuring that their fellow union members vote. One senior Labour figure said: ‘It will just take the word from McCluskey for the activists to stay at home, and then our marginal seats operation is in big trouble. Our membership has slumped, which means we don’t have the foot soldiers we had before. ‘We need union members, which is why this argument with McCluskey could not come at a worse time.’ Unite, whose block vote swung the leadership for Ed over his brother David in 2010, has an enormous, and some Labour MPs say ‘unhealthy’, sway over the party. In 403 seats where new candidates have been chosen, 129 will be flying the Unite flag - more than one third of the total. The candidates have either worked for the union or received financial sponsorship. More than 50 are in key target seats where Labour is confident of victory in May. In the current Parliament, 147 of the 257 Labour MPs have received directly, or for their constituency parties, donations ranging from £250 to almost £200,000. Ed Miliband (pictured) can ill-afford to make an enemy of Len McCluskey and Unite, for no other modern Labour leader has had to rely so heavily on one union to ensure the financial survival of the party . Unite has also handed £428,000 directly to Shadow Cabinet members. The biggest beneficiary is Jon Cruddas, the MP for Dagenham, who has received £157,000, which is more than one third of the total. Cruddas, significantly, is in charge of Miliband’s stuttering policy review. He has received a further £55,000 from other trade unions. Miliband’s private office also benefited to the tune of £120,000, and there was a further £148,000 for his leadership campaign. Since he became general secretary of Unite in January 2011, McCluskey, according to the union’s own data, has had 11 official meetings with the Labour leader - though it is not known how often they talk on the telephone or meet in private. The millions of pounds handed over by the union also come with strings. It’s why McCluskey has also had meetings with Cruddas and Ed Balls, the Shadow Chancellor. Unite’s paw prints can be seen on a number of policies which Miliband has announced. In June 2012, McCluskey, in a tub-thumping speech to his union, demanded a ‘tax on the family home’. Eight months later, Miliband announced a ‘mansion tax’ on properties worth £2 million or more. The policy has been disowned by leading Blairites such as Lord Mandelson, major Labour donors, and just about every Labour MP hoping to secure the party’s nomination to be London Mayoral candidate next year. The following summer, McCluskey called for the abolition of the spare room subsidy, or so-called bedroom tax, which is saving £465 million a year. The matter is personal for McCluskey because Harman (pictured9 is a member of Unite, and she presided over the blocking of their candidate. Two months later, in his party conference speech, Miliband pledged to do just that. The pattern goes on: in July 2011, McCluskey demanded a rise in corporation tax for medium and large-sized businesses. Two years later it duly became official Labour party policy. But despite the agreements on Left-wing policy, the row over Karie Murphy threatens to overshadow Labour’s election campaign. The quarrel is also a personal matter for Harriet Harman. In 1995, her husband Jack Dromey, now a Labour MP, ran for the leadership of the then powerful Transport & General Workers Union. Dromey had the backing of the New Labour machine from Tony Blair down. But he was heavily beaten, and the transport union was eventually absorbed into Unite. One senior source said: ‘Harriet lobbied everyone to try to get Jack that job, and was bitterly disappointed when he failed. She has been nursing a grudge ever since. ‘Harriet insisted on an all-women shortlist for Halifax, but was adamant Karie Murphy wasn’t on it. The sisterhood it seems only extends to the sort of women that Harman approves of, and they are clearly not certain working-class NHS nurses.’ The Halifax Labour Party is due to choose a candidate from a six-strong shortlist on Saturday, at which point the party leadership will be hoping the rancour over the latest campaign selection battle will fade away. But if that ominous tweet is anything to go by, the overweeningly powerful Unite union is already plotting its revenge.
Labour leadership blocked Karie Murphy from shortlist for Halifax seat . List agreed by ad-hoc three-strong committee chaired by Harriet Harman . Given Instructions by Ed Miliband to block the Unite candidate at all costs . Unite general secretary Len McCluskey enraged by actions of Miliband and Harman .