Parroting Tory propaganda

"If almost every Unite member voted Labour, we would win the election," he said.

Whelan revealed that 1,000 activists were using the phone bank regularly, adding: "All I can say in terms of feedback is how much union members enjoy doing it and how pleased they are to get a call from another member."

He doesn't mention how many BA cabin crew live in marginal constituencies and what their response has been to the suggestion of voting Labour after the vicious smears heaped on them and their union.

BA staff have become used to attacks on them from their boss Willie Walsh. They are also alive to the dangers of victimisation by the company.

But, when the Transport Secretary and then the Prime Minister in a Labour government put the boot in, they must wonder what kind of parallel universe they are living in.

It was no surprise that Baron Adonis acted as spokesman for BA, repeating Walsh's nonsense that a strike at the airline poses a threat to the company's existence.

As Unite joint leader Tony Woodley pointed out, Adonis has no experience of industry and the only reason he is in government is because of new Labour patronage, having been ennobled by Tony Blair and brought into his government to undermine comprehensive education.

But, for Gordon Brown to weigh in against the union in similar terms to Adonis - "deplorable" and "unjustified" - is nothing short of disgraceful.

When Walsh parroted Tory Party propaganda, Brown should have told him to stop playing politics and start engaging seriously with Unite to secure a just resolution of the dispute.

But Brown preferred to denounce the union after Walsh condemned the supposed financial dependence of Labour on Unite, claiming: "I am told that Derek Simpson, the joint leader of Unite has a lot of influence in Number 10. This has got to be somewhat embarrassing politically."

Unite's enormous amount of influence in Number 10 presumably explains Labour's decisions to abolish all anti-union laws, defend Britain's manufacturing sector, end privatisation and put the interests of working people before finance-sector fat cats.

Unite does indeed contribute major sums of money to Labour, as do other trade unions, but their contributions are different in two major ways from the lump sums doled out by big business to the Tories.

Union donations are accountable to union members and they don't come with a political price tag.

As Simpson has said, his union invests money to get a Labour government, not to buy specific policies.

That is understandable as a general principle, but growing numbers of trade unionists are frustrated at the Labour government's systematic dismissal of working people's demands and its automatic knee-jerk default to a corporate agenda.

There is a limit to the credibility of a political line that justifies a Labour vote on little more than the negative observation that a Tory government would be even worse.

Instead of Labour politicians using cabin crew staff as a political football to counter the spurious media claim that Brown is in the unions' pocket, they should recognise the justice of their case and speak out in their support.