Unite boss slams Labour's handling of Grangemouth after removing Rayner's membership
The boss of one of the UK's largest unions has said Labour's handling of Grangemouth has added to members feeling disenfranchised with the party.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, was defending the decision to remove Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner as a member over the lack of progress on the Birmingham bin worker dispute.
Scottish delegates were among more than 800 members who voted to remove Rayner's membership and to reconsider its affiliation with Labour.
Graham said: 'I have real difficulty with what they're doing about Grangemouth and the Lindsey oil refinery, and about oil and gas workers.
'Unite members are a microcosm of society and if you have people in Wales, in Scotland, all of our sectors effectively turning away from Labour, if I were Labour I wouldn't be trying to put up paltry defences to that, I'd be saying, 'What are we getting wrong?'.'
The union leader said the process of disaffiliating with Labour had already started after members called for a review of the relationship, which saw their subs contribute more than £500,000 to the party last year.
Seven Scottish Labour MPs have benefitted from Unite cash, receiving a total of £37,500 last year to help with their general election push. They are Glenrothes's Richard Baker, Glasgow North East MP Maureen Burke, Irene Campbell, MP for North Ayrshire and Arran, Edinburgh North MP Tracy Gilbert, Grangemouth MP Brian Leishman, Frank McNally of Coatbridge and Bellshill and Martin Rhodes, MP for Glasgow North.
On BBC Radio 4's Today Graham said: 'This was a vote of members at the parliament of our union that were saying, 'We don't believe Labour defends workers in the way that we thought they would, we believe they are making the wrong decisions.' I would be concerned about that.
"The disaffiliation part, the beginning, has started because the policy conference has said they want an examination of our relationship. Our members reflect society, what everyday people are saying. At a rules conference if our members vote to disaffiliate then yes [we will]. I'm under pressure to have an emergency rules conference which would mean we would disaffiliate.'
In response to sources briefing that Rayner gave up membership in April, Graham said: 'If I was Angela Rayner I wouldn't be trying to do a Houdini act on whether technically she was or wasn't at this juncture [a member]. She's been a member for years.'
A Scottish Labour spokeswoman said 'For over a decade Scotland's SNP and Tory governments ignored the mounting challenges at Grangemouth, but Labour stepped up and took action within a matter of months.
'This Labour Government has pledged £200 million to secure an industrial future for Grangemouth and ensure it is home to the jobs of the future.'
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