Labour dismisses call to sever ties with trade unions

A SENIOR Minister’s call for the Labour Party to consider severing its links with trade unions has been dismissed by the party as a “diversionary tactic” aimed at deflecting attention from the controversy surrounding corporate donations.

Over the weekend, the Minister for Communications Dermot Ahern questioned the relationship between political parties and trade unions. Where funds are donated there cannot be “the faintest hint of a reciprocal relationship,” he said in remarks carried in a Sunday newspaper.

However, a spokesman for the Labour Party last night pointed out that there was a long and historical link between the party and trade unions, adding that the party had in fact been set up by the trade union movement.