Iain McNicol’s sham plan to cut Labour’s ties to the Co-op by moving £1.2 million of debt to the Unity Trust bank doesn’t really cut any ties at all. As Faisal Islam reports, as a condition of the banking licence granted to Unity Trust the bank is “controlled” by… the Co-Op. This means the Co-Op appoints the Unity Trust chairman and has the right to appoint a majority of its board members, indeed the Co-Op’s risk and financial control directors sit on the Unity Trust board. They’re just rearranging the deckchairs…

Labour owes the Co-op group £2.4 million in outstanding loans and the Co-op last week declared £2.5 billion in losses, so that could be called in at any moment. Labour staffers are nervous about jobs and pay cuts, just when the HQ should be expanding in time for the election. When Labour nearly went bankrupt in 2006 it had to sack 200 staff but it still spent £12,043,000 per year on salaries for 284 party hands, meaning an average salary of £42,404.93. Meanwhile they’ve managed to stump up the six figure sum for Axelrod…