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Unite, the UK’s largest union, has voted to re-examine its relationship with Labour and moved to suspend deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, in a significant blow to a government struggling to keep the leftwing of its party onside.
Unite said a member vote at its conference in Brighton on Friday was taken following an emergency motion “that condemned Birmingham’s Labour council and the Labour government for attacking the bin workers”.
Unite is traditionally one of Labour’s biggest financial backers and the move comes as the party struggles to resolve a significant fiscal hole in chancellor Rachel Reeves’ spending plans against demands from public sector workers for improved terms and conditions.
The union singled out Labour’s handling of the long-running bin strikes in Birmingham over pay, which in the spring led to uncollected rubbish being left to pile up across the city.
Unite said the vote meant that if the “redundancy process” for bin workers in Birmingham was forced through then “Unite should discuss our relationship with Labour”.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite is crystal clear it will call out bad employers regardless of the colour of their rosette.
“Angela Rayner has had every opportunity to intervene and resolve this dispute but has instead backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts.
“The disgraceful actions of the government and a so-called Labour council is essentially fire and rehire and makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act promises.
“People up and down the country are asking whose side is the Labour government on and coming up with the answer not workers.”
A person familiar with the matter said Rayner had resigned her Unite membership several months ago.
Birmingham City council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
