Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BALLOT BAN FOR BREXIT BATTLER
Voting starts today – no, it’s not another general election.
It’s voting for the leadership of the Fire Brigades Union in a ballot that’s provoked allegations of dirty tricks.
A potential key contender and longstanding union activist, Paul Embery, can’t stand because he’s been barred from holding office for two years.
Mr Embery has been a prominent voice on the Left arguing that disrespecting the 2016 EU referendum result would be disastrous for
Labour: “Refusal to honour Brexit has utterly killed us, as some of us repeatedly warned.”
In March, he spoke at a Leave rally, after which he was called to an FBU disciplinary hearing and barred from office for supposedly acting “in a way prejudicial to the interests of the union”.
The ban is handy for incumbent general secretary Matt Wrack, who will not now have to fight his most high-profile challenger.
It stinks as much as Mr Wrack’s touring the country meeting members as part of an Fbu-funded nationwide roadshow to discuss pay, cuts and pensions.
Mr Embery says the timing of the roadshow has raised the question of whether its true purpose is
“boosting the general secretary’s re-election campaign”.
He says it’s a “remarkable coincidence” that the only two such roadshows in recent FBU history have occurred when Mr Wrack was up for re-election.
I asked Mr Wrack and the FBU to comment but it has not replied.
Mr Embery’s employment tribunal case claiming unfair dismissal is due to be heard in May.