Shadow cabinet ministers have warned of a “breakdown in discipline” over Labour’s approach to strikes, as Lisa Nandy visited striking BT workers days after Keir Starmer reiterated that frontbenchers should not go to picket lines.
Nandy and members of Starmer’s team are understood to dispute whether she was given tacit permission to attend the picket line. Sources close to the Labour leader said the matter had not been resolved and shadow cabinet minsters were furious.
Multiple shadow ministers said the policy to ban frontbenchers from picket lines had now “effectively broken down” since the shadow transport minister Sam Tarry was sacked for conducting multiple broadcast interviews from a rail workers’ picket on Wednesday.
Nandy, who is the shadow levelling up secretary, informed Starmer’s office in advance of her intention to speak to workers from the Communications Workers Union but the Guardian understands that the leader’s office were blindsided by the pictures of her at the picket line. Both sides dispute what was agreed.
Shadow cabinet ministers have said Angela Rayner, the deputy leader and a former senior union official, had told allies she was uncomfortable with the policy but was prepared to stick to the party line. “She can be very disciplined so you can imagine what this looks like to her now,” one senior party source said.
Rayner met union officials alongside the shadow culture secretary, Lucy Powell, in a Zoom meeting on Monday, a thinly veiled demonstration of the approved way to engage.
One shadow cabinet minister said they were astounded by Nandy’s visit to the picket, especially given the awkward position Rayner was in. “The policy should always have been: we don’t want you picketing, but of course you can speak to them,” they said. “That is obviously what the real policy is. But the fact this was a stupid policy does not excuse Lisa from throwing everyone under the bus.”
The shadow minister said they were now deeply worried about party discipline and the potential for a row with the unions to overshadow the party conference, saying: “I would not underestimate how dangerous this is.”
A second shadow cabinet source said they were extremely concerned about the breakdown of discipline. “There’s going to be a whole summer of this.”
Momentum, the grassroots leftwing group, said it would coordinate with local parties to bring motions to conference backed by unions that supports striking workers – in part an effort to embarrass Starmer.
Many shadow ministers – most not on the left of the party – said they had long resented the policy. One said those who had attended picket lines at the last strike had got the “full hairdryer treatment” from a senior aide in Starmer’s office and been given dark ultimatums about attending again.
“Unhappiness on this is very widespread on the frontbench,” the shadow minister said. “It is not just on the left. Unions are where most people on the front bench have come from – or [they have] worked in unionised industries.”
A third shadow minister said Starmer’s advisers “did not get it” and said they had failed to register the widespread public support for fair pay. “This is not an ideological battle with hardliners – it’s not 1996,” they said. “This is working-class people being driven to food banks by inflation and bosses getting bigger pay packets than ever.”
Allies of Nandy have made it clear they did not seek “permission” from Starmer’s office to attend, but informed them in advance.
“It’s a local dispute involving constituents but she let them know given the inevitable questions it would raise,” a source close to Nandy said. “She went down to show her support for constituents campaigning for better pay and conditions at a really tough time.”
Two other frontbenchers also visited CWU pickets: the shadow employment minister, Imran Hussain, in Bradford and the Labour whip Navendu Mishra in Stockport. Both are expected to be spoken to but not sacked.
Starmer has previously told shadow frontbenchers they should not join picket lines. “The Labour party in opposition needs to be the Labour party in power and a government doesn’t go on picket lines,” he said last week.
Tarry was sacked as a shadow transport minister by Starmer last week for giving multiple interviews on a picket line at Euston in London with striking RMT workers – where he suggested they deserved pay rises in line with inflation, a policy not agreed by the Labour frontbench.
Tarry said it was “great to see” Nandy joining the picket line. “Senior Labour politicians need to demonstrate loud and clear that our party is on the side of ordinary working people who are fighting back against this anti-worker government,” he tweeted.
Unions had expressed fury at Tarry’s sacking and Starmer’s stance. Unite’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, said she found it difficult to justify continuing to fund Labour through affiliation fees and that the issue would be debated by union members at a crucial meeting next summer.
In a Sunday Mirror article, Starmer said he understood why workers were striking for fair pay. “I completely understand why people are going on strike to secure better pay and better conditions. I support their right to do so,” he wrote.
A Labour source said: “The position hasn’t changed and of course MPs can still meet their constituents and respond to issues affecting their area.”
