Toby Perkins minds his manners with union Toby Perkins, the shadow minister for small business, last week denied that he had any serious involvement with trade unions. "I'm a member, that's it," he declared. Still, Mandrake imagines that the Chesterfield MP at least has to observe the social niceties with the top brass of the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians. His constituency office happens to be based in the same building as the union's headquarters. Among the policy demands of UCATT, which has donated £487,142 to the Labour Party since Ed Miliband became leader, are "an end to the Right to Buy," and rent controls, which opponents say would lead to fewer homes to rent and poorer quality housing. When he was campaigning to be Chesterfield's MP, Perkins joined a UCATT demonstration to highlight the need for better safety standards in the construction industry. "We want to increase trade union membership in construction, which is a very fragmented industry," Perkins said at the time.