Some big news in Labour land today. Angela Rayner, the party’s deputy leader, has had her membership of Unite suspended following her comments on the Birmingham bin strike. Or at least, that’s what the trade union said. It accused Rayner of supporting a Labour-run council that had ‘peddled lies’, after she urged bin workers to accept its pay offer. Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary, told its annual conference that ‘Rayner has had every opportunity to intervene and resolve this dispute but has instead backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts.’
However, the New Statesman reported that Rayner had resigned her membership of Unite ‘several months ago’, meaning she can’t be suspended. Who’s telling the truth?
Relations between the Labour leadership and the trade union movement have been deteriorating for a while. Unite boasts 1.2 million members and gave more than £500,000 to 88 of Keir Starmer’s MPs last year. But its conference has now voted to ‘discuss our relationship with Labour’, which could trigger a formal split between the two organisations. That could herald a financial crisis for the party, amid ongoing challenges in attracting wealthy donors. Having bankrolled Labour under Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn, Unite has since switched to funding individuals rather than the central party.
Unite has long been the most awkward union for Keir Starmer during his leadership. During last year’s election, Graham refused to endorse the party manifesto at a ‘Clause V’ gathering of union leaders and party officials. She has repeatedly criticised Labour’s policy of blocking new North Sea oil and gas licences, for diluting the ‘New Deal’ on workers’ rights and for trying to scrap winter fuel. But today’s motion marks a new low point in relations between Unite and Downing Street. The decision to single out Rayner for merely repeating the No. 10 line on Birmingham is especially notable, given how much she has been billed as the ‘keeper of the cloth cap’ in government.
All eyes will be on Unison next, Britain’s biggest trade union. Its general secretary, Christina McAnea, is widely seen as a Starmer loyalist. She is battling for re-election against a left-wing rival who rails against the government, and her result will be closely watched by other chiefs. The British Medical Association – which, importantly, is not affiliated to the party – clearly smell an opportunity with its pay demands to Wes Streeting. If the unions and Labour continue to fall out, then expect an even trickier Budget for Rachel Reeves come autumn.
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