Unite’s new leader Sharon Graham is Hard Left but remains Sir Keir Starmer’s best chance of a New Labour bounce
When Unite elected their first female General Secretary, Sharon Graham, this week it was seen as quite a shock.
She was a woman, she wasn’t the Unite Establishment candidate, and she was from a political world many in politics do not understand. So, can Sir Keir Starmer count on Graham to back him as he reforms Labour?
As I wrote at the beginning of June, it was pretty clear the Establishment candidate (at that time Howard Beckett and then via alleged deals, Steve Turner) was unlikely to win.
Graham, as I noted at the time, was in fact the first candidate to actually be on the nomination paper.
While, of course, the sheer size of her victory came as a surprise to many within the Labour world it leaves a question: is this someone Sir Keir Starmer can do business with?
People are confused by her. Graham is expected (by the successors of the Militant Tendency) to “build on what has been achieved after a decade of the leadership of Len McCluskey.”
Yet Graham can’t be boxed into the simple narrative of Left equals McCluskey 2.0. She is quite simply a “departure from her predecessors.”
During the campaign Graham said: “I’m not a member of the United Left and hold very significant differences [emphasis my own] in opinion with Howard Beckett, Turner…” labelling the McCluskey cabal an “oligarchy.”
Indeed, Worker’s Liberty UK suggested the “brief blizzard of policy proposals” line which Graham used to attack the McCluskey grouping, was akin to “Labour right-wingers suggesting that the problem with the party’s 2019 manifesto was too many and too ambitious policies.”
Moreover, in much of what Graham has said there are parallels with Moderate thought on Corbyn. When asked about the 2019 defeat, Graham said it was “inevitable.”
Adding: “I think this is the main issue facing the left… So much of the discussion is purely tactical and focuses on the day-to-day. It’s as if they have become completely disorientated…. I think we should be more focussed on building a bridge to the population at large.”
The analysis above could plausibly have been made by a Starmer outrider in late 2019 or early 2020. Her rejection of specific pledges on policies may have angered the likes of Worker’s Liberty UK but it didn’t stop her winning.
Yet not all is rosy for Sir Keir Starmer.
On the surface much of what Graham has said is beneficial to him as he redraws and reimagines the Labour Party for the next general election. But much of it has sting in its tail.
She wrote in the house paper of the Communist Party: “Now is not the time for more empty sloganeering and factional battles within Labour.” And has said: “I will not play factional games on the backs of the workers.”
Her manifesto included the phrase: “I am not interested in the internal game-playing within a political party.”
So far so good.
Sir Keir can relax that he won’t have a Beckett surrogate yapping at his heels on every single change, and NEC meetings will become less factional and more purposeful as time continues.
However, why is Graham so cool, calm, and collected when it comes to Labour? Could it be because her heart is not truly in the Labour Party (albeit within the Labour Movement)?
During the campaign she told a Leftist website: “We see progressive politics as being a lot more than elections and the Labour Party — as important as that can be.
“We need to build a sustainable progressive platform that sits outside of any party. We need to build a real base within workplaces and communities — they are our twin pillars if you like…..Fortunately we have the resources within the political fund to do this….
“We sponsor a whole host of noble causes but do very little of this work ourselves. We need to become part of the fabric of a community, build trust and earn your credibility. Great policies are not enough, we need to do the hard, unglamorous work of organising.”
This sounds very much like one of those Leftist dreams you would hear from the politically sincere but naive.
The plan normally goes like this: (1) take over a Leftist organisation and make it in our True Left image (2) move “beyond” Labour and other traditionalist vehicles for change such as Parliament or Law (3) Fill-in-blank-when-can (4) Global Revolution/Communism/Utopia.
It’s that unglamorous third part which gets the least attention but deserves the most. Perhaps Worker’s Liberty UK were right when they lambasted a lack of policies if Graham hopes to use the political fighting fund to enact a plan akin to the one above?
Clearly, the romanticism of Labour is not there for Graham. She told the Morning Star: “It is difficult to understand why there is such an obsession with the Labour Party among sections of the union’s leaders.
“For too long now, it seems to me that the political tail has been wagging the industrial dog.”
Indeed, in her manifesto Graham said (as her last point of six): “Politically, there will be no more blank cheques for the Labour Party… [M]y priority will be to build a movement within our workplaces and wider community.
“We need to do more than Westminster elections — we need to create and sustain support for an agenda based on the interests of working people.”
So, while disaffiliation and endless game-playing may be over for Labour, a bizarre lack of money for the Party and uncoordinated spending across the country on pipe dreams may be just as damaging as Turner’s/Beckett’s vision.
And we shouldn’t forget just how influential Unite has been to Labour over the last decade. It became a deciding factor within a chaotic (and weak) LOTO centre.
The so-called “four Ms” which at times bullied Corbyn into making decisions were Karie Murphy, Seumas Milne, Andrew Murray and (crucially) Len McCluskey. Murphy (who had an affair with McCluskey) once reportedly “screamed” at Corbyn about the Second EU Referendum: “We’re not doing that, we’re not selling out our class.”
But those days are over. Indeed, hours after Graham’s election McCluskey was reported to have “left the building.” Demonstrably, he knows (if the media do not) that his time is up.
Sir Keir, however, should be calm. He was right to welcome her election warmly, and many of the priorities that would have been delivered by Coyne (to the chagrin of Leftists) will be delivered by one of their own (as Coyne publicly acknowledged).
Graham’s plan involves a welcome breather from the aggression Unite was levelling against Starmer and his allies. It also is a welcome break for workers who have seen their subs used on less than good things in the name of Class War (or whatever).
But it isn’t a sign that Starmer can do what he likes.
While Graham busies herself with useless politics, Starmer will be able to remake Labour. But that doesn’t mean Unite has gone away entirely. And when Graham wields the stick it will be much more forceful than the rantings of some who lost.
LOTO need to use this breathing space wisely and swiftly. The sooner Graham realises her project of political reimagining is a hiding to nothing, Unite may return with a vengeance.
