A major trade union leader has accused Keir Starmer of “mixed messages” over the economy and workers’ rights on the eve of Labour conference.
Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said Labour needed to be more “robust” and “clearer” if they want to topple the Tories.
She told the Labour leader: “Be bold. This is not a time for being safe.”
Graham, whose union is Labour ’s biggest donor, spoke to the Record a year after succeeding Len McCluskey in the hot seat. She has refocused Unite’s activities around industrial action and said the union has put £150m into its members’ pockets in her first year after tough negotiations with employers. Graham will not be in Liverpool this week as she believes showing solidarity on picket lines is better than “sitting on my backside for four days in a conference”.
But she has strong views on Labour and shares the feeling of some on the Left that Starmer is not being bold enough.
She said the Truss Government’s lurch to the Right puts “clear blue water” between Labour and the Tories, but warned: "Clear blue water does not mean that you can stand still. And actually there is a real moment here where a proper alternative can be laid out on things like renationalisation of our energy and our infrastructure.”
She stepped up her criticism of Starmer’s team for calling for shadow cabinet members not to join picket lines: "That gave the impression that picket lines are a bad place to be.
"And what they need to do is to show that they’re on the side of workers, they’re on the side of workers getting better pay, they’re not on the side of profiteering and they’re not on the side of the rich getting richer.
“Because if they don’t do that, whilst there might be clear blue water, it might not be enough. I think there has been mixed messaging around that and clarity is important, but it’s not just around that. It’s also around the infrastructure of our economy.”
She contrasted Starmer’s edict with the actions of Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar: “At least he was on the picket lines. He’s been on picket lines up and down the country, I have to say, to be fair to him.”
Graham said voters need to know instinctively what Labour stands for: "People have to hear Labour and know ‘123 - they stand for 123’. I would like to hope that number one is that workers should be getting a fair deal at work and a proper piece of the pie...So they need to be clearer. Clarity is important. Belief is important. And actions speak louder than words.”
Graham, who will address Unite’s Policy Conference in Scotland this weekend, also took aim at the SNP and Tory Governments.
On the Tory mini budget, which delivered tax cuts for the wealthy, she said: “I literally think it’s abhorrent that they think the most important thing to do, at this juncture, is to cut tax for the highest paid and scrap the cap on bankers bonuses.”
She also accused Nicola Sturgeon’s Government of wasting opportunities on jobs in renewables: “That was an opportunity for investment, that was an opportunity for good wages to be paid, and of course that has been outsourced now, pretty much lock, stock and smoking barrel to Denmark, rather than that being done in Scotland.”
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