THE historic link between Scottish trade unions and the Labour Party here could be on its last legs after new figures showed the SNP Trade Union Group (TUG) had more than 15,000 members – more than Labour members in Scotland.
Although the Labour Party in Scotland has been reluctant to reveal its membership figures, its leader Jim Murphy said recently there were “around 15,000”.
Chris Stephens, SNP TUG secretary and candidate for Glasgow South West, said: “The expansion of the SNP’s trade union movement goes hand in hand with the huge growth of the party, as more and more Scots recognise that we are the party of working people in Scotland. Who knows what the real, ever-declining number of members who remain in the Labour Party in Scotland is. Jim Murphy has said recently that there are currently around 15,000 members of Labour in Scotland – despite claiming during a television interview in December that Labour’s membership figure was ‘about 20,000 or so’.”
Unite is Labour’s biggest donor, with more than £1 million, followed by Unison, with around half that amount.
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