Karie Murphy, the courtesan in the court of Corbyn who runs his office, is usually coyly described “as a close friend of Len McCluskey”. Loyally she is campaigning for him to keep control of Unite in the leadership election. Labour staffers are often card carrying members of the union. Some of whom have been put under pressure over the Parliamentary Branch’s nomination in the election. A co-conspirator emails:

“Karie told me that voting for Len will help my chances of getting a job in Unite or the Leader’s office. It’s put me off voting at all to be honest.”

Another Unite member and staffer said:

We all thought staff would be left to make their own decision on who they want to run Unite, but I’ve been put under massive pressure to vote for Len and I’m really worried about what will happen if I don’t.

Unfortunately this exactly what we expected given the culture in Unite, and we’re expecting more of the same at the nomination meeting on Thursday.

The Unite Parliamentary Branch’s nomination meeting is later today. Karie will be watching…