Labour-supporting unions predict Starmer will not lead party into next election | Keir Starmer
Labour-backing unions have predicted Keir Starmer will not lead his party to the next general election, in an intervention that threatens to further destabilize the prime minister after a damaging few days.
Labour’s 11 unions, including Unite, Unison and GMB, are expected to issue a joint statement on Wednesday saying “at some stage” the party will need to draw up a plan to elect a new leader.
At a special meeting on Tuesday, unions were divided over whether to call for Starmer to set a timetable for his departure; A source told the Guardian there was a “major fight” between union officials.
However, despite GMB and Community arguing it was not in the unions’ interests to join the leadership row, leaders are understood to have agreed to issue a statement saying they expected a leadership change to occur.
In a leaked copy of the statement, unions said it was clear to them that Labor “cannot continue on its current path” and, despite some progress, it is not doing enough to deliver the change people voted for at the last election.
They called on the party leadership to focus on the “fundamental change of direction on economic policy and political strategy” they say working people need, rather than the “personalities and political drama unfolding” at Westminster.
Starmer was increasingly confident on Tuesday that he had weathered the immediate threat to his job after Wes Streeting’s challenge failed to materialize despite some of the health secretary’s allies leaving the government.
But the prime minister’s fragile authority was weakened by the resignation of four ministers, three of whom were close Streeting allies, in what appeared to be a planned move. More than 90 Labor MPs have also called for him to leave since the weekend.
Starmer, who told his cabinet he would fight on as prime minister after a tumultuous few days, hoped his second kingpin’s speech on Wednesday would be a fresh reset moment for the government that would help unite his deeply divided party.
While he appears to have survived for now, even his most loyal ministers have privately admitted that he is unlikely to lead Labor into the next election unless he can dramatically reverse the fortunes of himself and the government.
Union general secretaries wrote in their draft statement, to be published on Wednesday: “Labour-affiliated unions have been clear that Labor cannot continue on its current path.
“While we recognize progress has been made on issues like the Employment Rights Act and the minimum wage increase, the results of last week’s election were devastating.
“Labour is not doing enough to deliver the change that workers voted for at the general election. Our focus is not on the personalities and unfolding political drama in Westminster but on the fundamental change of direction on economic policy and political strategy that unions have made clear they need.”
But they added: “It is clear that the Prime Minister will not lead Labor at the next election and at some stage a plan will need to be put in place to elect a new Leader.
“This is a point where the future of the party we built will be debated and determined – and we are working closely as unions to shape a shared vision of policy, political strategy and economic policy that will lead Labor back to working people, so Labor will do what it was elected to do: govern in the interests of workers.”
Union officials were disappointed when Downing Street postponed a meeting of the Trade Union and Labor Liaison Organisation. [TULO] He will arrive on Tuesday but still agreed to meet for talks.
Despite unions making major gains on issues such as workers’ rights and the minimum wage, the Labor leadership has had an increasingly tense relationship with the unions that help finance the party since coming to power.
While some union leaders have called on Starmer to resign, Unite’s Sharon Graham said the prime minister’s “writing was on the wall” after last week’s election disaster. Others urged the party to focus on its plan to change the country rather than discussing leadership.
