Labour party is ‘sticking two fingers up’ at working people, says Unite boss

theguardian.com:

Labour is becoming “irrelevant to workers” and it is now hard to justify handing the party millions in funding, the head of the party’s biggest union donor has warned.

In an interview with the Observer, Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, said she felt Labour’s leadership was, in effect, “sticking two fingers up” at workers with its response to strike action and its abandonment of pledges to renationalise public utilities.

Graham was reacting after Keir Starmer provoked anger on the left by sacking Sam Tarry MP, a shadow transport minister. Tarry’s dismissal followed his statement that workers deserved a pay rise that matched inflation, a claim he made while joining rail workers on a picket line last week. Shadow ministers had earlier been ordered not to join picket lines. Starmer also said last week that past pledges to renationalise utilities had to be reassessed in the light of the debt left by the Covid pandemic

Labour officials insist that Tarry had been fired for making up policy without consultation, rather than for joining the picket line. They also said Labour had to show it was ready for the responsibilities of government. However, Graham said that Labour was facing a “dangerous moment” because it was losing relevance for the thousands of workers she was helping fight for better pay and conditions.

“It is undoubtedly the fact that Labour is becoming more and more irrelevant to workers,” she said. “It’s unfortunate, but it is a fact. What’s required right now is for the party that is there for workers stands up and to stop being embarrassed to be the party for workers.

“Workers are being crushed here. I think there’s a real crossroads here for Labour. I don’t know anyone who thinks what happened to Sam