The United Left is a broad left organisation open only to members of Unite the Union. We are led by lay members and we strive for a union which is democratic and embeds equality at the heart of what we do.
United Left members are active throughout the union – in our workplaces, in our Branches, on the picket line and on our constitutional committees. We are the largest lay member grouping on Unite’s Executive Council.
We are issuing this statement following press coverage about Unite’s Birmingham hotel and reports of Serious Fraud Office investigations into potential serious financial misconduct in our union.
The United Left will always seek to ensure that members’ money is spent to maximum benefit for members and has consistently questioned and supported the establishment of formal inquiries into what happened in the building of the Birmingham hotel and the arrangements relating to affiliated services.
We are concerned that there have been several statements from the Unite General Secretary and the Chair of the Union which suggest that members of the United Left are implicated in corruption.
An interview on 23 September for the publication “The House” reports:
“. . . she [the General Secretary] believes some of the blame [for “financial irregularity” over the Birmingham hotel and Unite’s affiliated services] lies with Unite’s dominant faction, United Left. ‘There’s factional groupings in the union that allowed that to happen.’” Further statements have been made to the same effect at Unite’s Executive Council meeting.
Reference is made in the same paragraph about two inquiries, one into the Birmingham Hotel, and the other into Unite’s affiliated services. The interim findings of both have been handed to the police. The United Left demands that the GS publicly clarify that no members of the United Left are being investigated by the South Wales or any other police force.
The General Secretary has said that she has been threatened outside her home, because of setting up the inquiries. The United Left completely condemns any threats against the General Secretary, other officers, staff, or lay members, and has asked that the Union launch an urgent investigation into what took place, and what further action the Union must take to ensure the General Secretary’s safety.
Members will rightly have a lot of questions about what has happened and about how the Union can move forward. Our elected representatives on the Executive must be able to read the reports from the Inquiries, discuss the findings, and provide an informed response to the wider membership – who deserve a serious and considered account. Members need to be able to understand what action will be taken in the light of the recommendations.
To date, the police enquiries are ongoing, and the internal investigations have not yet been reported to the Executive. When they are reported, we will demand that as much information as legally possible be to be shared with members
As United Left we are addressing an array of other serious concerns within the union.
- The administration has not published its annual accounts for three years. The reason given to the Executive Council is that the investigations mean that some aspects of the accounts are not yet finalised. However, the General Secretary gave an assurance at the July 2023 Policy conference that she would produce the previous two years’ accounts (as required in our Rule Book) to delegates “shortly”. That was 17 months ago, and we are now in the initial phase of preparing for the 2025 Policy conference.
The United Left asserts that it is crucial that members can understand the real financial situation of the Union and urgent that the reports and accounts are produced as soon as possible.
There is an ever-increasing and extremely dangerous tendency amongst some groupings and factions to confuse the exercising of lay member democracy and accountability with “disloyalty.”
In the union movement it is healthy to have differing views; it is the bedrock of democracy to be allowed to disagree. It is the strength of the union movement to debate, and to arrive at better, more thought-through, progressive, and effective ideas and policies.
As union members and activists, we have a duty to hold the executive and the General Secretary to account – it is one of the main purposes of our constitutional structures. If we are no longer able to do this without rancour and unfounded name calling, then we no longer have a democratic, lay member led union – a premise upon which the General Secretary stood for election.
- Having once been the union that many sister unions rallied around, we have abandoned our leadership of the movement, and now appear to be completely aloof and with ever-diminishing influence.
The United Left has never lost sight of our place within the wider movement and has built strong relationships with the sister left organisations in the other unions at home and abroad.
- It is fundamental to our union democracy that it is the elected lay representatives and delegates on the constitutional structures that decide policy. They must be allowed access to all information to better scrutinise and hold to account every level of the administration from the General Secretary, to Regional Secretaries, Regional, and National Sector officers.
- Lay representatives and delegates must be able to carry out their roles and responsibilities in an informed manner without unfounded factional mudslinging from any source.
We as United Left will continue to fight for a democratic lay member-led union dedicated to the socialist future that our members deserve.