Following a different rule is hypocrisy

AS ONE of Britain’s biggest unions the GMB’s job is to stand up to bully bosses... not to be one.

But less than a year before winning the top job as general secretary at a union where sexism, bullying and misogny was rife, an investigation found that its Scottish secretary Gary Smith had bullied and harassed a woman.

But no one, including national president Barbara Plant, considered that might have ruled him out of standing.

At every turn the union’s strategy appears to have been to cover up, shut down criticism and brief against dissenting voices.

In short, the underhand tactics the GMB would rightly call out in other employers.

If this was an isolated incident it would be one thing but the fact is that in 2020 Karon Monaghan KC was asked to investigate sexism and misogyny after allegations about former general secretary Tim Roache.

She found the union institutionally sexist, had an excessive drinking culture and was riddled with cronyism, gossip and abuse.

Despite vowing to root this out, Smith, who earns £148,000 a year, has had to see off a strike threat among staff in the northeast of England over alleged sexism in recent weeks.

The Labour Party, which accepts millions in funding from the union, needs to face up to this issue and address it. Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar have been keeping their heads down and that is not good enough.

Real leadership is about calling out wrongdoing, even when it involves difficult conversations with friends and colleagues.

The workers, who pay their subs every month for the GMB to represent them in cases like these, deserve nothing less.