At its recent conference in Brighton, the union Unite voted overwhelmingly to expel deputy prime minister Angela Rayner from membership.
The successful motion denounced the way Birmingham’s Labour council has handled a pay dispute with the city’s bin workers, which, it claimed, involved large pay cuts. The motion also condemned the Labour government for supporting the council.
Rayner was suspended because, in the words of Unite general secretary Sharon Graham, she had “backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts”.
