Second union decides to cut donations to Labour

A second union says it is cutting its donations to the Labour Party while remaining affiliated.

Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite general union, told The Guardian Unite would still pay £1 million in affiliation fees to Labour, but said: “There’s a lot of other money that we use from our political fund where, actually, I’m not sure we’re getting the best value for it.”

The CWU communications union said in November that it would redirect any funding beyond the Labour affiliation fee to candidates and campaigns that support its aims (see Labour Research, December 2021, page 7).

Graham said: “The fact that I am being quite robust is because Labour needs to talk about workers, needs to defend workers and needs to defend communities.” She was unhappy that the recent Labour reshuffle meant there would be no secretary of state for employment rights in the shadow cabinet, following last September’s resignation of Andy McDonald.

She said she would rather put the money into causes that would “set the pace” for Labour to follow, such as the Scottish government’s proposal for a national care service, which Unite would like to push in the hope that it would influence UK-wide policy.