Labour vs the unions

The Labour party is preparing for power and the unions are deciding what role they might play. Friend or foe? Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has already incited their ire by refusing to commit to accepting independent pay-review body recommendations. Unite, the second-largest trade union, this week debated cutting ties with Labour and starting its opposition early.

The motion was, in the end, rejected. ‘The Labour party has decided we want to win,’ insisted one party figure. The union hit back. It insisted that Starmer has been ‘put on notice’ and that the union’s support (including a still-powerful get-out-the-vote operation) was not to be taken for granted. Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary, went further, arguing the pre-election months represent ‘the moment of maximum leverage for the union where we can hold Labour to account’. There is growing anxiety from the left that Starmer is abandoning Labour’s traditions in the pursuit of power.

The Tories were quick to try to exploit the spat. It shows who really pulls the strings, they said. This is a familiar line from the Conservatives: under Jeremy Corbyn, the then Unite leader Len McCluskey was regularly portrayed as a puppet-master. Along with Karie Murphy, Seumas Milne and the former Communist party member Andrew Murray, he was part of a group that made up the ‘four Ms’ or ‘the quad’. Centrist Labour MPs blamed ‘the quad’ for everything from Corbyn’s fiscal ineptitude to his lukewarm support for staying in the EU.

Now there is a concerted effort to suggest the opposite. Starmer and his shadow cabinet are keen to show they can stand up to the unions, which is why Sam Tarry has been sacked for the seemingly minor offence of giving interviews on a picket line.