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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: For the second time in a row union bosses have backed the winner to become Labour leader but will their choice be more successful at the ballot box this time?  Can Jeremy Corbyn win an election in other words and is that even what they want?  Well UNISON is the second largest trade union in the UK, it’s Secretary General Dave Prentis joins me now from Brighton, a very good morning to you Mr Prentis.  Well let me put that straight to you, do you think you have seen the election of a winner?  

DAVE PRENTIS: Well we hope so.  Remember this is the first time that a person has been elected by having a full ballot of all Labour party members, it’s not just the trade unions having a vote, all Labour party members had the vote and overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly they went for Jeremy Corbyn and we think that is a good sign, that people are uniting behind a leader, a leader that will take us forward, a leader that talks the language of many of our members within the Labour party and we’re hoping for good things from this.  

DM: But a lot of people seem to be getting carried away with the size, yes indeed, the size of his mandate, the size of his majority but when it comes to a general election, well let’s look at the figures.  Labour, although it got very badly beaten at the last general election, got over nine million votes, it’s a tiny, tiny proportion of those people that vote in a general election, this is a rather closed electorate is it not?

DAVE PRENTIS: Well it’s the first time that I can remember, and I’ve been involved for many decades, that a leader has been elected by all of the members of the party and it’s been an tremendous exercise in democracy.  People may have liked it, people may have been turned off by it but week after week we’ve been debating political issues and that hasn’t happened for a long time in this country.  I think this really does look good for the future, that we’ve got young people involved, talking about the issues that affect our country, we’ve got ordinary people having a ballot, having a vote instead of it just being the Westminster bubble and I think this is really good news.  

DM: And what’s your take on the number of senior, experienced MPs within the Labour party saying we don’t want a senior position, we don’t want to serve under Jeremy Corbyn.  Do you think Mr Corbyn should try and persuade them or is it good riddance to you, you were a Blairite anyway?  

DAVE PRENTIS: I actually think that the other candidates in the election, they’ve got a lot to offer whether it be Andy, whether it be Yvette, they are really experienced politicians and hopefully they will come on board and be party of Jeremy’s, the Shadow Cabinet.  The good thing about the Shadow Cabinet is that it will be 50% women so changes are being made but I really hope that the more experienced people within the party will all come in together and take our party forward.  We need the Labour party, we need it to win at the next election, some of the things that are happening in this country I have never experienced before, the Trade Union Act, the way in which there has been a 20% increase in jobs which have got no future just since the last election so we do need experienced people. I think like with any change, some people want to be involved, some people don’t but at the end of the day I think we’ve all got to pull together and turn our party round.  

DM: Of course you are down at the TUC, ready for that Congress in Brighton, Jeremy Corbyn will arrive and get no doubt a rapturous welcome, what will you be saying to him though about this dilemma he is going to have about the policy mix, to achieve that process and to win a general election do you think he will have to moderate, tack around a bit on some of his policies or does he stay true to what he’s said over the last 30 years and during the course of this campaign?

DAVE PRENTIS: He’s got to stay true to what he said.  We’ve had a number of years now where we’ve had policies from Labour which are just a little bit to the left of the Tories but they are very similar policies, whether it be on privatisation, whether it be on the job cuts, dealing with austerity, there hasn’t been that much between the two parties. What Jeremy does for us, he does give us alternatives, it sets out a clear agenda.  He is very honest, he’s very open in the way that he talks and I think people of this country want that, they want an honest person, they want someone that they can relate to and they want clear policies and I hope that as he goes forward he will actually keep doing that.  What we do not want is moving back to be just two centimetres to the left of the Tories.  Why would you vote Labour on those grounds?

DM: Okay and trade union matters, of course the first test for the new Corbyn Labour party is on the trade union legislation facing parliament and it was very clear that Mr Corby is going to oppose that but if it does get through, as it progresses, what is the trade union reaction likely to be?  We are hearing rumblings about general strikes and more activities on the streets.

DAVE PRENTIS: Well you may hear grumblings about it but we’re grown up people, we’ve led the trade union movement for many, many years and we want to keep the trade union movement safe.  It’s the voice of working people and we’ve got the government in power at the moment that wants to take away that voice. The Tory party says that we are the voice of workers and at the same time seems to want to neuter trade unions and some of this legislation is absolutely draconian.  If we want to use social media we’ve got to give two weeks’ notice, if you want to leaflet outside of a workplace we’ve got to give a name and address to the police and they will keep a record and they will blacklist and we know what will happen.  These things, we need to debate them in parliament, we need to debate them in the Lords but they need to be consigned to the history books because they are taking our country back not just 50 years but 100 years.

DM: General Secretary, thank you very much, Dave Prentis there from UNISON in Brighton.