UNITE backs Corbyn for Labour leader

This post has been cross-posted at Harry's Place

The news that UNITE have backed far Leftist Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader may have come as a shock to those who assume UK unions have a sensible pragmatic views on politics, however should this kind of extreme Left advocacy really come as a shock to anyone ?

After all UNITE is the union that has Andrew Murray formerly of the STWC as its chief of staff, a man responsible for such madness as this :

The chief of staff of Britain’s largest trade union Unite has launched a group supporting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. 

Introduced as representing the Communist Party of Britain, rather than Unite, Mr Murray, 56, a former member of the TUC General Council, branded the Kiev government ‘fascist’.  

Mr Murray – whose union has given £28.9 million to Labour since it was formed in 2007 – also derided Prince Charles for comparing President Vladimir Putin to Hitler, adding that he rejected ‘this focus on Mr Putin, when our enemy is at home’.

The leadership of many UK unions has unfortunately been infiltrated by various far-Left types, this is just another variant of the old Militant style infiltration that caused such disasters for Labour in the 70's and 80's. This often happens because union members are more interested in who can get them the best deal in the workplace than the wider political stances of their leaders.

Now scarily it appears that even commentators such as Luke Akehurst think Corbyn might have a chance of becoming leader. What would happen then ? What would David Lammy do ? He's the man who only backed Corbyn to get him on the ballot as he had previously raised so little support in the PLP.

This is what Lammy said when he "backed" Corbyn :

I spoke to Jeremy Corbyn last night and am pleased to have this morning nominated him to be leader of the Labour Party. While there is enough that Jeremy and I disagree on to mean that I won’t be voting for him, I believe the choice of who becomes Labour’s next leader should be made by Labour members and supporters - not by MPs.

Given the electoral disaster that Corbyn would be for Labour, if the members elected him leader (despite his lack of support in the PLP) there would be absolute chaos in the party and God knows what the outcome would be.