Unite accuses Labour of ‘currying favour with big business’ on workers’ rights

Sharon Graham said the union was ‘absolutely justified’ in its decision to withhold support over the national policy forum result in July. Photograph: Jacob King/PA

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of the Unite union, has accused Labour of partly rowing back on its plans to bolster workers’ rights in order to “curry favour with big business”, while the party said there had been no watering down of its policies.

Leaked documents, first obtained by the Financial Times, show the party changed the wording of its plans to strengthen workers’ rights at its national policy forum in July in an apparent attempt to head off Tory criticisms of its approach to business.