Labour’s biggest union backer, Unite, is launching grassroots campaigns in scores of industrial constituencies across the UK demanding more radical policies on energy, steel and green jobs.
Unite’s leader, Sharon Graham, who has been publicly critical of Keir Starmer, said funding earmarked for Labour would instead be funnelled into stoking public pressure for the party to shift its position on key issues including energy nationalisation.
“What we are doing is, we are diverting some of the money that we would probably have given to Labour, to have three major campaigns that we are starting, in the ‘red wall’ seats where these are the issues for those constituents,” she said.
“There will be billboards, there’s wraparounds, there will be one-to-one conversations: so when they come into those towns, people will be saying, that’s what’s important to them – and if Labour don’t pick the baton up, I think that will be difficult for them.”
Unite still pays significant affiliation fees to Labour, amounting to almost £1.1m in 2023 so far, but Graham said additional resources from the union’s political fund would now go into campaigning on specific policies.
She cited energy nationalisation, oil and gas, where Unite wants Labour to reverse its decision not to grant new North Sea licences, and government support for steelmaking.
“In Wales, in Scunthorpe … there’s 16 steel towns where we are taking our policies to the people of those towns and saying: ‘Whoever comes in here needs to give this commitment to steel,’” she said.
Unite is calling for Labour to allocate some of its £28bn a year of green investment funds to greening the steel industry – and promise to use British steel in all public infrastructure schemes.
Similarly, the union will target Scottish constituencies where there are oil and gas workers, calling for energy nationalisation, and a continuation of North Sea extraction until workers can move into new green jobs through a “just transition”.
“I don’t think there’s a family in Scotland that’s not connected to the oil and gas industry,” she said, claiming that many are “absolutely furious” about Labour’s policy on energy.
“I’m not saying, vote Labour, vote Tory, vote this or vote that – I’m saying, this is a core issue,” she said.
“Somebody asked me the other day: ‘How will you move Keir Starmer on these issues?’. For me, it’s the electorate: they’re the decision-makers. That is the reality. And so if the electorate moves, he moves – it’s as simple as that.”
In her speech to union delegates at the TUC Congress in Liverpool last Monday, Graham conceded that renationalising energy, including the National Grid, would cost £90bn but insisted a future Labour government could afford it.
Some of Labour’s green policies, spearheaded by the shadow energy secretary, Ed Miliband, have proved controversial with trade unions representing oil and gas workers.
Some fear their members could face the fate of coalminers in the 1980s unless the shift away from fossil fuels is carefully managed.
The GMB shares Unite’s scepticism about halting new North Sea licences – but its general secretary, Gary Smith, said he would continue to make that case directly to Starmer.
“Labour are just wrong on this: they’re wrong on oil and gas, and we will continue to argue and debate on it,” he said.
Smith, many of whose members work in the energy sector, rejected the idea of nationalisation, however.
“There is an argument for public ownership of some parts of strategic infrastructure; but the idea we were ever going to nationalise retail energy is nonsense: there’s not a lot of money in it,” he said, pointing to the fact that some energy providers have recently had to be bailed out.
Unite irked some delegates at the TUC’s annual gathering by publicly attacking some of Labour’s policies, when most unions affiliated to the party have been publicly supportive – in particular of a raft of workers’ rights measures reaffirmed by the deputy leader, Angela Rayner.
Graham has accused Labour of watering down some aspects of the package, including unions’ access to workplaces, blaming corporate lobbying. “Most of these policies cost no money, it’s not financial. So it was done for a different reason and I assume it was done for business,” she said.
“We have put a lot of money into Labour through the bad times – they weren’t in government, so we’ve got nothing for it. And then of course the business lobby show up late for the party, and of course it’s: ‘We’ve got to be careful.’”
She also urged Starmer’s party to take a more radical approach on issues including tax and spending policy – a view shared by some other unions. “If they’re too cautious, I think that will be a problem, because I think people are crying out for something,” she said.
Graham’s predecessor as Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, was closely involved in Labour politics during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, and she has deliberately taken a more arm’s-length approach.
Unite gave Labour £3.5m in the run-up to the 2019 general election, making it by far the biggest contributor to the party’s campaign. Graham did not rule out providing more financial to support to Labour in the run-up to a general election.
“I’m sure we’ll have discussions – why would we give them any money if we didn’t want them to win: of course we want them to win – but we can’t just put a blank cheque into central Labour and say, ‘do with it as you will’, when the very issues we’re trying to get them to agree to, they’re not agreeing to,” she said.
Labour has been recruiting new donors among business leaders and philanthropists in recent months as it seeks alternative sources of funding.
A Labour spokesperson said: “A Labour government will change the lives of working people for the better, and everything we do is focused on that.
“A core part of our plans is our new deal for working people which will strengthen workers’ rights and tackle insecure work. That is good for workers and good for employers.”
