Union barons threaten to axe Labour cash over sacking of Rayner’s lover
SIR Keir Starmer’s position as Labour leader is under growing jeopardy after unions threatened to withdraw party funding amid a bitter internal row over rail strikes.
Union barons say they may starve Sir Keir of the money he would need to fight a General Election if they cannot be certain he supports their cause – a crippling blow if the incoming Tory Prime Minister calls a snap poll.
The threat is a dramatic escalation of the growing civil war between the Left and moderate wings of the party. The divisions deepened last week after Sir Keir sacked Transport spokesman Sam Tarry – the partner of his deputy Angela Rayner – after he joined striking rail workers on a picket line.
A senior union source told The Mail on Sunday that if the new Tory leader – predicted to be Liz Truss – triggers an immediate Election, they will refuse to rally to Sir Keir’s cause.
‘If Liz calls a snap Election there’s nothing we can do’, they said. ‘There’s no way our members are going to allow us and the other unions to spend £10 million of their money funding a campaign when we have no idea if Keir Starmer is even going to stand up for their interests. Unless we get a clear picture from Starmer about what he believes and what he’s planning to do in Government then we won’t be writing any more big cheques.’
With the unions providing the bulk of Labour’s cash, such a move could cripple the party’s Election campaign and potentially make Sir Keir’s position untenable – effectively amounting to a Left-wing coup.
Electoral Commission figures for last year show that unions gave the party nearly £6.8million, compared to just £1.3million from individual donors and £450,000 from companies.
There are also increasing signs that Labour’s Blairite wing is increasingly frustrated with Sir Keir’s failure to drive the hard-Left Corbynista rump from the party.
The Labour turmoil has been greeted with delight in Ms Truss’s camp.
Her supporters increasingly believe she would be able to secure a mandate for a second term if she wins the leadership contest against Rishi Sunak, who is trailing in the polls.
The Foreign Secretary insists she currently has no intention of calling an early Election if she becomes Prime Minister. Constitutionally, she could delay a poll until as late as January 2025.
In other developments yesterday:
M Ms Truss’s ally Nadine Dorries defended her criticism of Mr Sunak for wearing £450 Prada shoes, using an article in The Mail on Sunday to say the former Chancellor ‘had ruthlessly and metaphorically stabbed Boris Johnson in the back’ and made Michael Gove’s 2019 betrayal ‘appear like a rank amateur rehearsing for the role of Brutus in a village hall play’;
M The Foreign Secretary framed herself as the ‘save the Union’ candidate by vowing there will be ‘no second [Scottish] independence referendum on my watch’ because the last one was intended as a oncein-a-generation opportunity, and ‘you cannot just keep holding polls until you get the result you want’;
M MPs backing Rishi Sunak have privately admitted ‘it’s over’ – with some refusing to campaign for him as panic increasingly sets into his camp;
M Mr Sunak launched a plan to ‘save the high street’, vowing to slash the number of empty shops, protect cash machines from closure and crack down on graffiti, littering and other anti-social behaviour;
M Sources revealed that Ms Truss warned Mr Sunak during their Cabinet clashes that sticking to the hike in National
Insurance to pay for NHS and social care would kill off his premiership plans.
In a dramatic move last week, Sir Keir sacked Mr Tarry as Shadow Transport Minister for giving interviews and making policy ‘on the hoof’ while joining striking rail workers on the picket line. The row widened the gulf between Sir Keir and Ms Rayner, who is popular with Left-wing MPs.
In a private WhatsApp message to the Left-wing Campaign Group of Labour MPs, Mr Tarry called on colleagues to ‘use this moment to build the resistance’, adding: ‘The fightback starts now.’
After reports that Left-wing supporters of Jeremy Corbyn had quit the party under Sir Keir, Mr Tarry told MPs they needed to ‘make sure members don’t leave, and be clear who does stand on the side of workers. Solidarity comrades.’
Mr Tarry was defiantly back on a picket line yesterday, joining striking train drivers from the Aslef union and general secretary Mick Whelan at Paddington station. Mr Tarry, MP for Ilford South, tweeted: ‘Proud to join my brothers and sisters... on the picket line. There is power in a Union.’
Allies of Mr Tarry confirmed that union bosses were so angry with Sir Keir that they were ‘talking about turning the [funding] taps off’.
They insisted that Mr Tarry was still campaigning for a Labour Government led by Sir Keir in the ‘slim hope that Starmer is going to see sense’ and support the unions in their strike campaigns.
One ally of the MP said: ‘There’s going to be a whole summer of strike action. This picket line ban is not sustainable – nor is not saying anything positive about workers having pay rises in line with inflation.’
Blairites have been complaining privately that Sir Keir’s failure to crush the 25 or so hard Left MPs in his party could come back to haunt him if he came to power, as he would need their votes in the Commons.
One Shadow Minister admitted they could hold the ‘whip hand’ in a ‘small majority government or even in a hung Parliament’, adding: ‘Whatever the issue about the SNP or the Liberals, that’s the biggest weakness in our coalition.’
‘We don’t know if he will stand up for us’