Unite the Union: a history of ideological lawfare
THE JC understands that an increasing number of Unite’s 1.2 million members have begun to resent their union’s apparent willingness to continue spending money on defending the Corbyn political project — a striking feature of its activity since the former Labour leader took charge of the party in 2015.
Recently, there has been concern among union members over the decision to fund an attempt by Jeremy Corbyn, former Labour communications chief Seumas Milne and former General Secretary Jennie Formby to view the wording of the libel settlement read out ahead of last month’s Panorama libel settlement.
The JC reported how a letter, which was sent by the legal firm Carter Ruck to Labour’s lawyers, had suggested the trio were “deeply concerned” about the impact of the apology on their reputations.
Unite members, who noted a report on the subject in Private Eye this week, are now asking why the union believed it should pay for the trio’s costs for such a unusual legal move.
In the union’s history of legal battles to defend Corbyn supporters, the name of one legal firm comes up again and again: Brentford-based solicitors Howe and Co.
The legal firm was instructed to defend Labour in the Panorama libel case after the antisemitism whistleblowers announced they were suing the party in July 2019 — but its involvement with Unite and the party under Mr Corbyn goes much further back.
In 2016, during a legal row over whether Mr Corbyn’s name should be on the Labour leadership ballot in the contest in which he was re-elected leader, Unite instructed Howe and Co to act for Jim Kennedy, their representative on the party’s NEC, and stated that legal action would be taken in the event of the Islington North MP’s name not appearing on the paper.
In March 2017, a JC investigation revealed Unite’s involvement in the defence of two students who were accused of engaging in repeated antisemitic acts while members of the Oxford University’s Labour Club.
The duo — who were not identified in the report — received legal backing from Howe and Co, paid for by the union.
Labour’s own Compliance Unit had recommended issuing formal warnings to the two individuals. But during a meeting of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), three Unite representatives — Jennie Formby, Jim Kennedy and Martin Mayer — “ran rings around the room”, according to insiders. As the JC reported at the time, at the end of the NEC meeting it was decided there was “no case to answer on the counts of antisemitism”.
A Unite spokesman later told the JC: “This matter was decided upon overwhelmingly by Labour’s NEC. Any further questions are a matter for the Labour Party.”
Howe and Co were also instructed by Unite to fight a libel case with the former Labour MP Anna Turley.
It is understood that the case — in which Ms Turley sued the union and Stephen Walker, editor of a pro-Corbyn website — could have been settled for less than £10,000 in 2017, but instead, ended up in the High Court. According to reports shortly after the trial in December last year, the case will cost Unite £1.5m-£2m.
To the fury of members, who vented their anger on social media, Unite also picked up the legal bill for Mr Walker.
In the past Howe and Co has also represented activists such as Jackie Walker, as she attempted to challenge her expulsion from Labour over antisemitism.
More recently it has represented Mr Corbyn himself in his libel case against the Jewish blogger Richard Millett, which is now set to go to full trial.
Meanwhile, last month, the JC revealed that Mr Beckett, Unite’s head of legal and a close ally of Mr McCluskey, had been congratulated at a meeting of left-wing activists for offering “practical support” to “help fight the witch-hunt and purge of left-wing Labour members.” Mr Beckett was brought into Unite as its head in-house lawyer after he and his partners sold their Cheshire firm for a reported £2.69m in 2011.
In 2009 he was fined £5,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal after his firm — along with others — was found to have wrongly deducted a claims-handling firm’s fees from the payouts to sick and injured miners it represented.
Members have begun to resent the expenditure on defending the Corbyn project