Labour leadership election will not be union 'stitch-up', says Harriet Harman

Harriet Harman has insisted that the Labour leadership contest will not be a union “stitch-up”, while defending her decision to reverse party policy and back a referendum on the European Union.

Harman also said Labour would oppose any plans to hold an in/out plebiscite on the same day as local or Scottish and Welsh elections, in order that the issue did not become confused in the mind of voters with other political campaigning.

Labour’s interim leader told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that she was confident the party’s next leader would be in a better position than Ed Miliband, who faced repeated jibes from the Conservatives that he had only managed to win because he had the backing of union bosses.

“There is absolutely not going to be a stitch-up by the unions in this election,” she said. “We’ve got a completely different election system than we’ve had previously.”

In 2010 Labour used an electoral college to choose its leader. David Miliband won in the two sections set aside for MPs and MEPs, and for party members, but Ed Miliband had a big lead in the third of the electoral college set aside for members of unions affiliated to Labour.

Although union members voted individually by post, some unions sent out ballot papers in envelopes making it clear the union was advising them to back Ed Miliband.

Harman said the new system would ensure this did not happen again. Union members would have to sign up individually to become an affiliated member, she said, and ballot papers would not be sent out by trade unions.

Harman also said that she hoped that either the new leader or deputy leader would be a woman. Her interview coincided with the Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, Rushanara Ali, saying she was joining the five other candidates running for the deputy leadership.

Confirming that Labour now backed an in/out referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, Harman said it was important that the referendum was not held on the same day as the Scottish and Welsh elections due next May, or any date when local elections are held.

She said this was “a big constitutional issue on its own” and that it needed “separate consideration”.

In the past the Electoral Commission has also said referendums should not be held at the same time as other elections, to avoid campaigns getting confused in the minds of voters, although this principle was ignored when the alternative vote referendum was held in 2011 because ministers hoped a joint poll might increase turnout.

Harman announced Labour’s decision to back an EU referendum in a joint article in the Sunday Times (paywall) with Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary.

They said: “We have now had a general election and reflected on the conversations we had on doorsteps throughout the country. The British people want to have a say on the UK’s membership of the European Union. Labour will therefore now support the EU referendum bill when it comes before the House of Commons.

“The Labour party doesn’t want to see the UK stumble inadvertently towards EU exit. We will make the case for our continued membership. The notion that Britain’s future and prosperity and security lies shutting itself off from this market and a world that is increasingly interdependent makes no sense.

“And in an age of powerful trade blocs, with the growing economies or Asia and Africa, we have more power by being in the EU than we could ever hope to have by acting alone. That is the argument we will make in this referendum, as the British people make their decision.”

Labour said it also supported efforts to reform the union, including freedom of movement rules.

“Like many people and businesses, we want reform in Europe – on benefits and the way the EU works – and transitional controls on the free movement of citizens from any new member state wanting to work in Britain,” Harman and Benn wrote.

“We will hold the prime minister to account on these. But the EU itself needs to recognise the growing demand from countries across Europe that want more devolution of power and a recognition that the EU must work for those countries that are and will remain outside the euro.”

The pair said nearly half of investment in the UK was from within the EU and it remained the country’s largest export market, citing Confederation of British Industry estimates of a net benefit from membership of 4% to 5% of GDP.

A number of large UK employers, including Deutsche Bank and Airbus, have confirmed they are reviewing the consequences of a Brexit for their businesses.