Tories, the Workers Party. A brief history
Suella Braverman has claimed the Tories are the trade union of the British people.
The Tories have occasionally used slogan that the Tories are the Workers Party in the past
They do not mean one presumes Sinn Fein which in recent times has used that name, but some attempt to get away to shift the image of the Tories as a lot of very wealthy Old Etonians (which mny of the leadership are)
I have been a trade union activist for 40 years and I can well remember a time when Tory trade unionists had a reasonably serious presence as activists in the movement. They would traditionally oppose the involvement of Unions with ‘politics’ and were often to be heard saying that they wanted lower taxes because they could decide themselves how to spend money.
There is a well-known study of the working-class Tory voter by McKenzie & Silver, Angels in Marble (1968):
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XNg3AAAAMAAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions
This is often seen in the same framework as the deferential voter and until the 1950s the Tories controlled some large northern cities such as Liverpool (the last time was 1972)
Some trade unionists still do vote Tory, perhaps a few more did in 2019 than at recent Elections but to find an activist is quite rare. Hats off [on this issue] to Robert Halfon the Harlow MP, a trade union member, who is I think the only Tory to speak up for trade unions in the Commons on a an occasional basis. He tweeted the workers party line in the past.
Most recent Tory thoughts on unions have been around issues like raising the bar on how many must vote for strikes or bashing the facility time of union representatives in the public sector or making sure that workers have no employment rights until they have done two years in the job
Several Tory leaders ago there was some attempt to engage with genuine representatives of workers in the form of trade unions
Even before he came to Office David Cameron appointed Richard Balfe [a former Labour politician turned Tory MEP] as the Tory trade union envoy.
Mrs Thatcher who was a trade union member herself when working in industry had pursued a similar angle but the approach had lapsed.
Balfe was of course not universally popular in the labour movement. The link here gives a flavour of his views:
Balfe is now a Lord and the role of trade union envoy appears long defunct, although Ministers still do talk to unions from time to time.
Perhaps one of the ideas of the Tories as the workers party is that they aim to represent those [far too substantial] sections of the working class who are not trade unionists.
In reality the workers party boast in 2023 is just an empty slogan. To give it any substance the Tories would need to address the issue of (the lack of) rights at work. Given that the current Tory leadership, elected or otherwise, sees one of the key reasons for leaving the EU, as a chance to have a bonfire of what employment rights there are, it seems an unlikely scenario
Leave a Reply