Fire Brigades Union decides against disaffiliating from Labour

Attempts to disaffiliate the firefighters union from the Labour Party have failed amid strong criticism of the Prime Minister.

Delegates at the annual conference of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) held a lengthy debate on links with the party in the aftermath of last week’s elections.

FBU general secretary Steve Wright said millions of working-class people had rejected “Keir Starmer’s Labour Party”.

He told delegates at the conference at the University of Warwick that the message could not be clearer, adding: “Starmer is not fit to lead the Labour Party, and he is not fit to be Prime Minister.

“This is Starmer’s fault and Starmer must go.”

Answering calls from some delegates to disaffiliate, he said: “We can drift away from Labour altogether, cosy up to another party, or we stay and fight.

“We stay in the room. We stay in the argument.”

The FBU affiliates around 12,000 members in England and Wales to Labour and they will be among those to decide who the next Labour leader, and therefore the next Prime Minister, will be, said Mr Wright.

He told the conference that the FBU’s experience over recent years had vindicated its decision to reaffilate to Labour in 2015, securing commitments on consultation about national standards in the fire service, on the Grenfell Tower disaster, on flooding and on removing anti-union laws.

Affiliation had made a material difference to firefighters’ lives and safety, so there was no logic on voluntarily walking away from the places where decisions are made, he said.

“Why would we choose to stand outside shouting in, instead of being inside taking firefighters’ concerns directly to those in power?”

The best place to demand fire service funding, fight for pay rises and oppose cuts was inside the Labour Party, he argued.

Many people would love to see unions pushed out of politics altogether, and disaffiliation would help them as well as weakening the voice of unions and workers’ influence, said Mr Wright.

Delegates voted to remain affiliated to Labour.

– The annual conference of the Communication Workers Union took a similar decision earlier this week after its general secretary argued against disaffiliation.

Mr Wright said after the vote: “It was clear from all sides of what was a very carefully considered and open debate that there is deep-rooted and genuine anger among our members that the Labour government has let down working people.

“The next Labour leader faces an immense challenge to regain the trust of firefighters and working people.”