Union could cut ties with Labour over Corbyn rift Commonwealth plea to Princess

A TRADE union has threatened to break its long-standing ties with Labour in protest over Jeremy Corbyn’s suspension as an MP.

Sir Keir Starmer was last night under mounting pressure from his party’s hard-left as the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) claimed it felt “further away from having a political voice than ever”.

With senior figures in Unite, the Communication Workers Union and the Fire Brigades Union also calling for donations to Labour to be slashed, the BFAWU said it would now consult its membership on disaffiliating.

However, in a sign of the growing schism in the party, Sir Keir faced a separate setback as a Labour life peer quit over the decision by a disciplinary panel to readmit Mr Corbyn as a party member.

Despite Sir Keir refusing to hand back the parliamentary whip to Mr Corbyn, Lord Desai wrote in The Times that the ruling had made the “persistence of anti-semitism” in Labour “more likely than not”.

“I have submitted my resignation from the Labour Party after 49 years of membership,” he added.

In a statement published on its website, the BFAWU also cited Sir Keir’s approach to the coronavirus pandemic and claimed that he had failed to show strong enough opposition to rental evictions and government legislation granting protections to undercover agents.

“If that wasn’t bad enough, the move by the leadership to both suspend and then overturn an executive decision relating to former leader Jeremy Corbyn was a disgraceful act,” Ian Hodson, the union’s national president, said.