Unite votes to suspend Angela Rayner’s membership over Birmingham bins dispute

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has been suspended from membership of Unite over the Government’s handling of the Birmingham bin strikes, the union said following a vote of its membership.

Despite the union’s vote, a source close to Ms Rayner said she had already resigned membership of Unite some months ago.

But in a sign of a growing divide between the major union and Labour, Unite also voted to “re-examine its relationship” with the party.

The move comes after Unite members debated a motion at their conference in Brighton, where they condemned the Labour-run council in Birmingham, and the Government, for their approach to the bin workers.

The union said fire and rehire tactics had “effectively” been deployed against striking workers, who are taking industrial action in a dispute over pay and job conditions.

“Disgraceful actions”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite is crystal clear it will call out bad employers regardless of the colour of their rosette.

“Angela Rayner has had every opportunity to intervene and resolve this dispute but has instead backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts.”

She added: “The disgraceful actions of the Government and a so-called Labour council is essentially fire and rehire and makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act promises.

“People up and down the country are asking whose side is the Labour Government on and coming up with the answer not workers.”

“Disruption”

A Downing Street spokesman said the Government’s priority throughout the dispute had “always” been Birmingham’s residents.

The No 10 spokesman also told reporters: “As you know, Unite’s industrial action caused disruption to waste collection.

“We have worked intensively with the council to tackle the backlog and clean up the streets for the residents for public health.

“We remain in close contact with the council and continue to monitor the situation as we support its recovery and transformation

“I think it’s important to look back to the context of this dispute: Unite is in dispute against Birmingham City Council’s decision to reform unfair staff structures, which were a major cause of unequal pay claims and left the council liable to hundreds of millions of pounds in claims, and that was a key factor cited in the council section 114 notice in 2023, declaring bankruptcy.”