Oh dear. Andy Burnham’s efforts of late to appeal to Jeremy Corbyn’s left-wing voters may have gone to waste after an email blip this morning. Steerpike understands that he has risked the wrath of one of the unions after an official looking email was circulated to members of Unite, the trade union, urging them to vote for Burnham.
With Unite backing Corbyn, members were surprised to receive the email, from Joyce Still and Steve Hibbert of the union’s executive council, asking them to support Burnham in the leadership race:
@unitetheunion just rec email from Andy Burnham team in name of J Still & S Hibbert Unire Exec – why are they endorsing Andy in Unites name?
— JT – I DO WHAT I DO BECAUSE I CARE!! #UnpaidCarers (@Disabled_Carer) August 20, 2015
@cheesy_monkey email is from @Andy4Leader campaign and is nothing to do with Unite
— Unite the union: join a union (@unitetheunion) August 20, 2015
Unite has been quick to distance itself from both the emails and Burnham. They have insisted that it is not an official email from the union and instead have claimed that the emails come from Burnham’s campaign team:
@unitetheunion @Andy4Leader Email header states from Joyce Still & Steve Hibbert "Unite Executive Committee" so gives impression from Unite?
— JT – I DO WHAT I DO BECAUSE I CARE!! #UnpaidCarers (@Disabled_Carer) August 20, 2015
Meanwhile, Len McCluskey has now gone one step further and sent an email to members reinforcing that the union is backing Corbyn, rather than Burnham. He says to ignore the emails from other candidate’s campaigns which may cause confusion, as Corbyn is the only candidate that the country needs:
It seems the chance of a job for Burnham in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet is looking less and less likely. Mr S has contacted Burnham’s team for comment, but has yet to hear back.
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