Unison gen-sec: Labour is ushering in fascist Reform UK

Andrea Egan, who took over in January as general secretary of Unison, has said that the Starmer government is ushering far-right Reform UK into power.

The comments come as Unison’s annual conference begins today.

Left-winger Egan ousted Christine McAnea in a vote of Unison members. McAnea had long been accused of prioritising the Labour right’s manoeuvres over the interests and democracy of Unison members.

This week’s conference is Egan’s first in her new role. In an interview with the BBC’s Iain Watson, she said that the union had been a “sleeping giant” that had been “subservient” to Starmer’s Labour for far too long.

Unison has been “handing money over to the Labour Party and getting absolutely nothing in return”, Egan claimed.

She added that she had been “frank” with Labour that it was betraying the people it is meant to be serving.

I have been very frank with the government. When Labour came into power there was a sense of relief. But sadly we’ve been left wanting.

Communities are really struggling. They [Labour] haven’t delivered and my election demonstrated that members were desperate to have their voices heard.

Unison’s Egan says Labour must deliver on promises

The union boss also told Watson that Starmer is on track to “hand the keys to No10 to Reform”.

I have spoken out clearly about the threat Reform brings. It isn’t us that will hand the keys to No10 to Reform —  it’s them, unless they change course. And drastically.

They’ve got to start introducing progressive policies. Investment in infrastructure, pay restoration, better services, insourcing. They need to ensure that they deliver on promises they made when they came into government.

Egan is right but also wrong. If Starmer’s Labour carried anything of what Labour is meant to be, there might be a prospect of the party changing — if only to retain power, if not to actually serve ordinary people. But the only thing Starmer’s zombie party has in common with the Corbyn party that it replaced is the brand.

Starmer’s entire purpose in taking over was to end Labour as any prospect of change for the better.

Instead, his party is owned by and run for elite interests — those of corporate privatisers, the arms industry and the Israel lobby.

Starmer’s personal and policy record in Downing Street and even before that is appalling. So appalling that a reasonable person could very easily conclude that Starmer is actively trying to end Labour as a political force and “hand the keys” to the far right.

Do not underestimate the damage Reform will do

Egan shows every sign of under-estimating the threat Reform poses. She cites Farage’s plans to attack workers and the NHS, but Reform would also wage war on minorities and human rights and launch a fire sale of what little remains in public ownership.

But in that, Farge is barely distinguishable from Starmer, who hardly even bothers to try to window-dress his own racism, authoritarianism and lust for privatisation.

Egan was expelled by Starmer’s cronies in 2022 when she was Unison’s elected president. It was an unambiguous show of Starmer’s contempt for the union movement if it won’t serve his interests.

Nothing has changed — not for the better, at any rate. Yet, Watson says, Egan “insists that she has only ever been a Labour member — and it wasn’t her choice to leave”.

The time to separate from Labour is now

Watson’s article notes that in 2027, Unison members will vote on whether to end the union’s affiliation to Starmer’s party. Unison currently pays more than £1 million a year to Labour. That will leave just two years — at most — before the general election at which Egan expects Labour to roll out the turquoise carpet for Farage to enter No.10.

Starmer’s record and the short time remaining to build up a genuine opponent to the fascist right — whether the fascists are wearing red, blue or turquoise rosettes — means waiting another year is unconscionable.

Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, even if he succeeds in this week’s Makerfield by-election and in deposing Starmer, is signalling that he would only put a personality on most of the same awful policies.

Unison, like the entire union movement, needs to disaffiliate now and put its money and resources behind a left party with a genuine chance to stop them. After the self-inflicted implosion of Your Party, that means the Greens. There’s no time for dithering.

Featured image via Unison