Who do Labour MPs represent? The party, the voters or the unions?

By Mark Wallace
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Oh dear. It seems that having bailed out the Morning Star, a paper which has coincidentally been very flattering about him of late, Unite's Len McCluskey now expects other left wing news outlets to dance to his tune.

Guido has revealed a letter sent by Len to the Editor of the New Statesman raging against "confected" reports that he wanted Ed Miliband to sack the Blairites in the Shadow Cabinet.

In fairness to the Unite leader, the quotes in the article don't show him calling for sackings. They say if Ed is "seduced" by Blairites "then the truth is that he’ll be defeated and he’ll be cast into the dustbin of history." All very measured, I'm sure you agree...

As interesting as the row itself are the terms in which it is couched. McCluskey has sent his complaint letter on to various Labour MPs - recipients addressed in his covering note as "ALL UNITE MPs".

Given that documents leaked last summer led to allegations that Unite is seeking to take over the Labour Party, and the widespread concern over Ed Miliband's reliance on union donations and backing, that is a remarkable - and revealing - turn of phrase.

So whose MPs are they? The Labour Party's? Ed Miliband's? The people's? 

Len McCluskey seems to think they're his.