Union attack on Labour’s mayoral candidate Simon Unite alleges MEP’s West Midland campaign is ‘interfering’ with ongoing leadership contest
TRADE union Unite has launched an extraordinary attack on Siôn Simon, Labour’s candidate to be mayor of the West Midlands.
The union’s acting general secretary, Gail Cartmail, claimed Mr Simon’s campaign was interfering in the union’s own ongoing election contest to choose a permanent general secretary.
And she said this included “the shared use of Labour Party membership data”, in defiance of Labour rules.
This was why the union’s national leadership had blocked a decision by Unite leaders in the West Midlands to provide £10,000 to support Mr Simon’s election campaign, she said. The claims were denied by a spokesman for Mr Simon’s campaign, who said: “Siôn and his campaign has taken no position and played no role whatsoever in the Unite leadership election.
“Our focus is entirely and only on our campaign to get a Labour Mayor elected in the West Midlands – to take back control of our region from London.”
Unite, the UK’s largest trade union, is in the middle of a leadership contest in which general secretary Len McCluskey, a key ally of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, faces a challenge from Gerard Coyne, the union’s West Midlands regional organiser.
Last week emerged that Unite’s West Midlands officials including Mr Coyne agreed to provide Mr Simon’s campaign with £10,000 but the decision required the endorsement of the union at a national level – where it was blocked.
Ms Cartmail, who is leading the union while the election contest continues, said Mr Simon and Mr Coyne appeared to be working together.
She said: “I must make it clear that the decision not to offer Mr Simon’s campaign financial support at this stage was taken by myself.
“Len
Neither Mr Simon nor Mr Coyne have explained the nature of their agreement,
McCluskey it has had no part in this decision and has not been consulted on it.
“The matter is ultimately the responsibility of Unite’s Executive Council, which meets next week and to whom this will be reported. The final decision rests there. However, Unite has been provided with overwhelming evidence that Mr Simon’s campaign and Mr Coyne’s campaign have entered into some form of a mutual support arrangement, which has included the shared use of Labour Party membership data.” She added: “It is as far as I know unprecedented for a Labour Party campaign to seek an agreement for support not with an affiliated trade union but with an individual himself campaigning for elected office within that union.
“However, neither Mr Simon nor Mr Coyne have explained the nature of their agreement, what provisions it might include, nor how and why it was arrived at.
“Under these circumstances, Unite cannot make a donation to Mr Simon’s campaign, since there are no guarantees that such money would not be used to support Mr Coyne’s campaign and thereby interfere in Unite’s own democratic processes.
“Gerard Coyne is a candidate in the election for Unite’s general
Unite’s acting General Secretary, Gail Cartmail
secretary. He has every right to be such, and I am serving as acting general secretary in part to ensure the integrity of our election.
“However, if he wishes to assist Mr Simon in the West Midlands he would do better to cease issuing inaccurate press releases, but rather to help the union in getting to the bottom of this matter.”
She was responding to comments from Mr Coyne, who attacked the decision to withhold the funding.
He said: “I begin to wonder whether Len McCluskey wants the Labour Party to win at all. Of all the mayoral contest in major British cities, the one where Labour faces the biggest challenge and therefore is most in need of support, is in Birmingham. That is why the West Midlands Labour Party Liaison Committee of Unite agreed to give Sion Simon’s campaign £10,000.
“There has been no explanation as to why this donation has been blocked by Unite’s head office, apart from vague and unsubstantiated claims.”