Unite, Labour's largest trade union affiliate, may reconsider its relationship with the party
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, has said Labour is “devoid of purpose” and that without a clear change in the government’s policies, it doesn’t matter who the party’s leader is.
Unite, Labour’s largest affiliate and funder, may reconsider its affiliation to the party.
Graham said in an op-ed for the FT that if a Labour agent arrived at Unite HQ tomorrow asking the union to affiliate, “we would say ‘No thanks’”.
She added that at Unite’s conference next year, the union will consider its current affiliation to Labour, and that “the mood music right now is to depart”.
The union boss criticised Labour’s direction since the New Labour takeover of the 1990s under Tony Blair, saying it “has become rootless and devoid of purpose”.
Graham said that “The pendulum has swung wildly depending upon which faction is in charge. There is no soul, just warring tribes and power struggles.”
She said that “the disgrace of the Mandelson affair” shows how Labour stands with elites and is “a sign of how the party has changed”.
“Peter Mandelson was not leaking secrets to Jeffrey Epstein about a better deal for workers but a better deal for the elites — for City bankers,” she said.
Graham also criticised Rachel Reeves’ budget back in November, saying “It delivered for the bond markets and once again for the bankers, while increasing stealth taxes for millions of workers.”
Graham concluded with a stark warning: if Labour fails to grasp that neoliberal policies have failed to deliver what was promised in the 1990s and does not change course, “it will be swept away on the tides of history and trade unions will chart their own course”.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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