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Breaking: GMB withdraws funding from Labour in London

The GMB union has become the latest to pull funding from the Labour party, withdrawing all funding from London Labour after the sacking of a grieving caretaker by Islington borough council.

A statement on the union’s website explains:

GMB has withdrawn funding for the Labour party in London after a grieving caretaker was sacked after 24 years’ service.

The union – one of the labour party’s biggest donors – turned off the taps following the ‘callous’ dismissal Gary Bolister.

“Gary is utterly devastated by his sacking – working for Islington council, where he was born and raised, was his passion and his vocation. His callous sacking over an honest error is beginning to look like political victimisation.”

Warren Kenny, GMB Regional Secretary

The 43-year old was given his marching orders by Labour-run Islington council for his part in a Facebook live video against Islington road closures in November last year.

In the clip – which Mr Bolister appeared in but did not film – an Islington Councillor was inadvertently filmed in her home by accident. The video was immediately stopped and Mr Bolister offered to apologise. 

Regional Secretary Warren Kenny went on:

GMB will always back our members and if Islington Labour refuse to listen to reason we will hit them where it hurts – in the party coffers.

Unite, another giant union affiliated to the party, has already reduced its funding over Keir Starmer’s leadership. If the Labour right expected GMB to tamely fall in line after its recent general secretary election, it assumed wrongly. GMB boss Gary Smith has already ordered a complete review of the union’s donations to Labour – and GMB and Unite recently joined forces to condemn Labour’s shoddy treatment of staff put at risk of redundancy.

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62 comments

  1. At last! Was just beginning to lose hope after tragic loss of Dawn Foster, Graham Vick and others and now Dr Kailash Chand. R.I.P.
    We desperately need outspoken people outside the bunkers.
    🔔🔵🔔🔵🔔🔵

    1. Not for the life of me can i understand people campaigning to be victims. We may need a new party after all but totally without silencers who correctly condemn mandelson hodge evans blair starmer ashworth cooper and gang but do the same.

      Also, no worthwhile new party for us the “left” can succeed with committed defeatist, victims and with the blinkered view that because jeremy was attacked, he should hide. Totally blind to Marc Wadsworth suing and winning. Even children attacked with words, suing and winning yet experienced adults carry on just as they always have,

      I heard this morning that Tom Daley came under tremendous abuse over the years and last night. And yet he can speak up, but high and mighty self proclaimed “smart” people try to discourage others with their dim wittedness. Louis Smith the gymnast is attacked too, so is Dianne Abbott, Dawn Butler, Ken Livingstone, George Galloway Marc Wadsworth… the footballers, Louis Hamilton… Even a child knows opponents attack. Are sensible people sincerely and seriously telling the young to keep running to cosy bunkers??? That is TOTALLY GROSS irresponsibility. Disgraceful. Jewish voice for Labour’s Craig Murray article is basic common-sense. In fact he has been attacked mercilessly since criticising Blair & Straw’s corrupt and depraved foreign policy. Those attacks made Craig very unwell. Still he stands up to his attackers. What should he do? Hide too? If we must hide for fear of attack; then what EXACTLY are we for ❓❓❓

      We must not be taken in by those who actually wrote their latest “smart” peach; don’t even try to be up to speed on what our opponents r plotting. Neither bad nor stupid, yet acting stunningly as both.

    2. David Graeber and several more untimely deaths, I was almost constantly worried for Jeremy Corbyn’s life, I still am TBF! Especially if anything big takes off again be that movements/protests/etc!

      1. i was too skellynelly. glad i’m not alone in my worry; though doesn’t help.
        🎢⚙️🎢⚙️🎢⚙️

    3. Windchimes…I have never seen a front page obituary for anyone other than Volunteers who died in the hunger strike in the Maze and long kesh \ camps.and officials of Sinn Fein who work tirelessly for their communities.Dawn foster was afforded the honour of the front page of anphoblact.commending the girl from Newport S.Wales born in Ireland and brought up in wales.. Her unbiased i integrity and honesty and what journalists should be….Her attention to detail and most importantly her skills in showing what evil poverty becomes especially in one of the richest countrys in the world.You are right to point out the loss of so many decent people and real human beings.Dawn never lost her faith and like many others it was the backbone of her humanity.There are many more out there decent human beings who rely heavily upon the people we elect.Good news will trickle through and good people will triumph eventually.

  2. First, the expulsion/suspension of a 72 year old Islington MP; now they sack a man of 24 years service for making a video against road closures…

    They got something against Islington in general, or summit?

    1. “They got something against Islington in general, or summit?

      It’s about not being deep state neoliberal, innit?

      101% for the trilateral oligarchs and their economic system whch causes systemic poverty and inequality and means that one in six families in the UK raise their children in absolute (not relative) poverty.

      Keir Rodney Starmer is the anti-leader of Labour and was elected by only c. 32% of members and supporters in 2020 – most of whom now bitterly regret their choice and should be given a chance to rescind it other than leaving the party.

      1. So who should they have elected as leader instead Lisa Nandy or Little Becky.

      2. “So who should they have elected as leader instead Lisa Nandy or Little Becky.”

        Party leader? I doubt it matters now. Despite not leaving yet, the Starmer experiment and the covid fiasco persuades me that Labour will never be an alternative government in UK AND have democratic socialist policies and values. I kinda hope they go full-hog and invite David Rockefeller Jr to be Lifetime Leader. As a billionaire he certainly hasn’t taken an experimental nRNA drug therapy jab and might last another 20 years or more..

    1. It is quite unusual that GMB and Unison, was fiercely Anti-Corbyn and Neolabour Party TORY Occupied and now look at them I guess the Members have spoken and the Neolabour Party TORIES shown the Back Door! Let there be many more VERY SOON!

      1. the union bigwigs r not what people assume. they r part of the establishment. on the rate i’v heard them, every single one was excellent with substance and excellent handling of the presenters. yet again puff
        🗯🗯🗯 gone …until the next huge outrage. they talk the talk but nowhere nearly as needed. even then, have worker’s rights, conditions and real wages really improved compared to the one percent bandits❔ their vulture grabbing has increased exponentially, more so since Covid-19
        ❓📌❓📌❓📌

      2. The unions are threatened with survival the same as the Labour party,Even rats try to swim in a sinking ship and the message of survival is even permeating the right wing Zealots of the Labour party PLP and all.Keep up the pressure and withdraw your subs,.Even union barons are worried about the state of the Labour party and will not fund a organisation that threatens their very existence and standing. The message is not getting through to the knights bunker,but it never will.More pressure no money and watch them 🔥burn.PLP now extremely worried 😟about continuing to make a good living off the backs of the surfs….!The working-class movement are beginning to turn and the Labour party are firmly in their sights.Let the knight and his shadowy cabinet sneeer they are on the brink of extinction.

      3. The Bastard Right Wing Conservative Capitalist Greedmongering Neoliberals have taken over every single aspect our lives internationally! The Law, Parliament, Policing, Military, The Labour Movement, Charities, Watchdogs, Comms, Orgs, etc, etc, etc!
        ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING that has been put in place to prevent exactly this from happening is now in the very hand of the maniacs that it was designed to prevent and monitor!
        We can combat this by setting up our own PEOPLE’S Decentralised and Open Source Watchdogs, Comms, Orgs, etc,to investigate, inspect and monitor Corruption, Racism, Inequality, Biases, etc at Ofcom, EHRC, ICO, Electoral Commission, CIVICA, etc. Who can monitor these orgs and Charities for fair distribution of finances and to prevent Fat Cat Pay and Top Heavy Extortion.
        It would be great as one International Movement with Bordered off-shoots, for national law, to take on The UNITED NATIONS & ICC! The PEOPLE’S Movement where everyone can play their small/big part with what ever the can contribute, internationally!
        Together we CAN, we just have to get TOGETHER and UNITE AS ONE!

    2. Well said Steve. We have no time for pussyfooting around. We need radical change on everything and we need it now, otherwise we are going to hell in the handcart. Max Headroom and his pals just want more of the same Blairism, which actually got us to where we are now.

    3. “No shots across bows…..all guns blazing & terminate funding.”

      I’d say this IS a warning shot. It’s not all GMB funding, it’s only a local (London) fund and it’s in direct response to local specifics.

  3. The right of the Party as always doesn’t understand Trade Unions very well.
    I remember well the days in which GMB cut his contributions to the Labour Party under Blair by 50% and dabbed John Prescott “two Jags” because of having two Jaguars as his disposal, driver included.

  4. Is it more or less than 1 months reserves
    Is the Labour party now insolvent
    Hope so

    1. Reserve’s of 13.5 million in reserve after the election.Money still coming in from a membership of over four hundred thousand they claim.Eighteen months of the knight and only buttons in the bank.No ifs ..no buts ? there has to be an emergency audit to find the missing millions.and a departure of those to blame at the very top of the party… .This is the hard earned money of members,very few of them who make the amounts these fat cats get to represent the Labour party ..IF it was their hard earned money they would shout the house down.Lets have some “forensic accounting without the help of the suspects around…!

      1. Joseph
        First port of call for the begging bowl will be the Unions, they should all be demanding an update
        If response is mind your own business then they should join us all in withdrawing funding on Labour Day Tuesday 5th October
        In the meantime at conference Evans should be rejected

      2. As far as I can see nobody has established that there is any money missing.

      3. ITs obvious his nibbs mr Hall centrist Dad has never done any shopping on a budget because he thinks if you take out X amount and Spaff the money on god knows what and come back with a empty shopping bag thats okay to him and his misfits.I suspect though that the money was divided up amongst his mates and reported as a mugging “..Rule is don’t trust greasy lawyers or imbeciles that have no longer any respect for the dead or the living if they are not part of their narrow minded club.

      4. Joseph – Thanks for the distracting diatribe which confirms that you don’t have any evidence of any missing money either.

    1. PW. What that account shows is that Corbyn did not realise the power he held and was able to muster by engaging the help of the hundreds of thousands of members who supported him. It also shows that those around him were a bunch of utter incompetents. His greatest mistake of course was resigning in the first place instead of staying and fighting his case.

      1. As I said a couple of days ago, Jack’s job on here as a paid shill is to find fault – albeit FAKE faults – with Jeremy and ALL things left every-which-way he can!

        So could you give one or two examples of what he could have done had he ‘engaged the help of the hundreds of thousands of members who supported him’?

        No? Thought not!

        Needless to say, if members who supported him wanted to ‘help’, they could of course – as many DID – and get involved with their local CLP or Momentum group, who would no doubt have plenty of things for them to do.

        And what ‘case’ are you referring to Jack? Fight WHAT case! Jeeeze man, yur spouting complete and utter gibberish shill bollox! His biggest mistake! Yeah, in your shill-shite black propaganda fing- any-way-you-can to discredit him to the readers of skwawkbox. Jack knows full well of course that there is no way on this planet that Jeremy could have stayed on as leader after such a massive defeat, and he is just pulling your pisser and having a laugh. At you!

        I mean if I believed for one second that Jack was being serious – as opposed to coming up with anything he can think of to discredit Jeremy – I would castigate him for suggesting that Jeremy – after four plus years of being vilified and demonised – that JACK would have had him just subjected to it all AGAIN!

      2. Allan …..but you constantly denigrate Jeremy by repeatedly portraying him as a weak and helpless individual

      3. Steve H you do get too slip back in that easily.Wheres the apologies for the “couldn’t care less” comments you made at the death of a comrade and voice for the NHS…and friend of Squawkbox and the left.How dare you impune Socialist telly with “Legal problems” and other negatives..Yet here you are once again brazenly spreading propaganda and criticism for the knight.

      4. ON the button Jack and theres nothing in the rules to stop a leader carrying on after a general election campaign.We all know who stitched him up and why.Twelve months of Corbyn would have been beneficial for the Labour party all around and certainly there wouldnt have been thirteen millon disappeared without even a meeting or explanation.And yes I realize that the kangaroo NEC had a meeting but I am talking about serious people being brought in and forensic accounting and verrified acounts and bank statments to compare invoices etc etc..Yes human beings not dodgy printouts from Lottos office.and if necessary the Metropolitan police force…The powers in the membership and the mystery of the missing millions is in your hands.

  5. WHERE IS THE GLOYT SteveH he is normally first on hear with his wisdom where the fuck are you

    1. Brian61 – Oh dear are you missing me.
      The reason that I haven’t and won’t be commenting on this article is that there is insufficient information within the article above for me to be able to reach an informed opinion.

      1. Oh, so you’ve showed up again, mlrally defunct taunt.

        No social skills, no brains, no shame. May the milk bottles pile up on your doorstep NAD cause a health & safety issue before anyone can be arsed to inform the authorities.

        Not that they’ll complain about the smell…the neighbours have most likely built up a tolerance to it

        informed opinion just who the fuck are you trying to kid, mister 460k is more than 552k?

      2. I needn’t prove anything as you provide all the proof of your lying shithousery with just about every post you make.

        Once again you’ve tried to swerve the snideyness I’m referring to. Instead trying to fill people’s heads with more of your bullshit about membership numbers being higher under stammer than they were Corbyn.

        Nobody’s buying it, so turn it in. And then apologise for both that and your rat-bastardness early hours of this morning.

        You know full well what I refer to.

        We know what you are, and it’s not what you think you are.

        Far from it.

      3. Toffee – I presume you are getting fullfilment from these silly antics.

      4. SteveH 27/07/2021 at 6:13 pm :

        🙂 That’s never stopped you before.

      5. Still swerving your shithousery for all to see.

        Ordinarily I’d say it was down to having a guilty conscience, except you don’t have any sort of conscience

        https://skwawkbox.org/2021/07/25/labour-shuts-down-london-conference-entirely-in-middle-of-chairs-speech-to-prevent-her-criticising-keir-starmer/#comment-192532

        And the following two posts..

        At time of posting you still haven’t posted anything on the Dr Chand thread. Not because you haven’t seen it, but because you don’t give a shite.

        And matter what way you try to spin it, 460,000 is, and always will be LESS than 552,000.

        Knobhead.

      6. Toffee – I have no problem with people reading the entire thread and I would encourage them to compare your 12:04 comment with your earlier 04:23 comment when you appeared to be as blissfully unaware of the death of Dr Chand and that it was in any way connected with the delayed broadcast as I was.

      7. Bollocks.

        Having left my phone internet on the page of the thread before going to sleep, I woke up to fulfil my caring duties (as I have done just just now) before checking for any further comments on that particular thread then noticing the Dr Chand thread.

        Whereas you – who had been posting through the night – as usual – carried on posting in the same thread.

        Despite the Chand thread being up for two hours you continued to have a pop about there no socialist telly broadcast and not posting any sort of condolence on the Chand thread. You simply have no claim as to missing it as you have previously readily admitted you receive alerts for new threads and comments

        You despicable subvirate shitbag. Even lying about that now and trying to paint somebody else with the same brush in a desperate attempt to absolve yourself.

        What a contemptible rodent you are.

      8. Further proof you knew about the Chand thread can be taken from the time you posted this snide comment

        SteveH27/07/2021 AT 2:27 AM
        winndchime – What’s the hold up them. As for me being disappointed, not really, Just idle curiosity,I don’t much care whether it is shown or not. .

        2:27am.

        The Chand threads first comment was 1:36 am so there’s nearly an hour, but even when windchimes pointed out your cavalier attitude later on at 303am, you still went on the attack

        signpost not windchimes27/07/2021 AT 3:03 AM
        Shame on u SteveH davidh SH it is clear u r as heartless as WFM

        Your direct reply at 3:29am – two hours or more since the Chand thread came into existence and you’re feigning ignorance and trying to tar others with the same brush youve tarred yerself with.

        SteveH27/07/2021 AT 3:29 AM
        windchime – You are in danger of looking hypocritical. Given that no one else (including yourself) had commented about the lack of a video 5hrs after the event then it doesn’t look like anyone else cares much either. Do you know what the hold-up is or are you here just to show us all how virtuous you are by trying to guilt trip me.

        You’ve been collared bang to rights and STILL you try to obfuscate and blame others. The mark of the abject shithouse.

        Dr Chand will be missed and grieved over.

        Your demise will be met with a resounding: “meh”

    1. redoctober18, GLOYTs don’t understand verbal interaction; or pretend as steveH davidH SH Caribbean Bolt Hole Branch do, just to irritate.

      Just in case re my earlier post; the SH ‘gloats’ eg enjoys our distress and is smug with their success.
      GLOYT is regarded as slang.
      Hope that helps. 🌸🌸🌸

  6. You can’t tell me that an employee of many years service can be dismissed for being filmed in a video protesting against local authority policy?? I remember Hazel Blears and many others protesting against government policy with impunity. Not sacked. There must be more to it than Skwawk has mentioned.

  7. It took The Guardian until 1630, today, to write an article about the sad death of Dr Chand.

    There was no full-length official obituary.

    An example of how far that newspaper has sunk, in standards, from its heyday – whenever that was.

    1. It, the Guardian never really had a “heyday” George, though it is at a particularly low ebb just now. There is a new book just out. “Capitalism’s Conscience: 200 Years of the Guardian”, a collection of essays on the Guardian which should prove interesting reading.

      1. Renegade Inc on RT has the author on this week
        Centrism trumps Socialism, the Guardian was always an apologist for Capatalism

      2. The Manchester Guardian was never a socialist paper, but it did have good journalism and compared to what it is now was a beacon of integrity.

        Today’s Guardian hasn’t yet quite reached the depths of the rest of the MSM but with the exception of one or two of it’s contributors, it no longer has proper journalism or analysis just what I believe are called ‘clickbait’ articles. And in particular it’s stance on Assange and Corbyn is utterly disgraceful.

        It is amusing, no nothing is funny about it at all really but for want of a better word, to see the usual suspects at The Guardian who laid into Corbyn over the past 5 years now spouting forth about the result of that stance. As to Assange, mostly silence reigns….

        I shall have a read of the book, thanks for the info.

  8. Positive in some ways but when Labour London has abused members what has GMB done? The shenanigans at Regional Conference, what has been done? Has any Union yet stated they will not vote at Conference 21 to ratify the (temp) appointment of David Evans as Labour GS? Will any of them vote to support the Rule amendment that makes the withdrawal of the PLP whip subject to ratification by Conference? Have any of them offered to sponsor legal action vs Labour over the contract breach and Equality Act 2010 breach of the proscription of SA, LIEN, LAW?

    I will celebrate the support and resistance of the unions when I actually see genuine actions being taken to prevent the root and branch purge of the left from Labour. The union leadership have an invidious choice, either take a side and start fighting to save the Labour left or carry on permitting the purge which will lead to an inevitable split and a new left Labour movement.

    1. Or
      They will be bankrupted by Red Tories as well
      Time to clean out the stables

    2. Not forgetting McCluskey’s opposition to Open Selection nor his support for the IHRA definition.

      1. JackT
        Most good Union leaders are shit politicians, whereas most politicians are just shits
        As Billy Connolly says “just wanting to be a politician should rule you out for life’

      2. Doug, agreed. This is why MP’s should come from their own communities where they have been encouraged by locals who know and respect them, to represent them. not parachuted in to places such as Liverpool from Essex just because they have put their names on a list of wanabees.

      3. JackT
        Teachers, Journalists and Politicians should not be allowed to join the ranks until they have lived a life
        Or
        Have the decency to trust the experts

      4. Jack – I’m not a fan of Len’s but according to Len McCluskey it was Jeremy Corbyn that persuaded him (and other unions) to vote for ‘Trigger Ballots’. At the time Unite’s policy and plan was to vote for OMOV Mandatory Reselection.
        Here is the proof.
        Unite has indeed got a policy in support of mandatory reselection. Had that issue been voted on directly, the Unite delegation would have voted in line with policy. But we have another policy, which I recommend to Chris and all Labour MPs: we support Jeremy Corbyn.
        If Jeremy and his team – taking the overview of the entire political landscape, including the situation within the parliamentary party and the leadership of Momentum – urge a particular course of action, Unite is not going to go against that without the most serious reasons. The changes adopted may not be “mandatory reselection” as some define it but it is at the very least a “selective mandatory reselection” that will make it far easier for local parties to choose a different Labour candidate if that is their wish. That is probably why the Momentum national leadership joined nearly all trade unions in supporting it.
        For Unite, this is not an issue of theological purity. It is above all about supporting the Labour leadership, something that brings together the vast majority of the party today.

        https://labourlist.org/2018/09/len-mccluskey-accusing-unite-of-machine-politics-undermines-jeremy-corbyn/

  9. Why does the leader of the Labour party have to be a MP There are many potential leaders of the Labour party in the membership as well as Councillors and officers in the CLPs.Time someone took the Stranglehold of the PLP away from these people who think they are the cream of the Labour party.Andrew Scattergood who leads momentum and not infected by the fiefdom owner is a good example of leadership,ideas and a way forward from the Parliamentary Labour party a separate and devisive enemy of the people.Time for change.and certainly time for new thinking of a way forward for the working-class movement.

    1. Joseph
      Democracy is the least worst system, how we manage it is entirely upto us
      So the answer to your question will always be ‘Why not’
      If an individual commits an act of Gross Misconduct then they should be sacked on the spot, don’t care who they are, start at the top and work your way down
      We are either all in it together or not
      Regards

  10. SOME SURPRISING NEWS

    Sheffield Forgemasters to be acquired by the Ministry of Defence for £2.56m
    Shareholders agreed to sell their entire share capital to the MoD, a move which will support a substantial recapitalisation of its defence-critical plant, equipment and infrastructure necessary to secure the delivery of components into future MoD programmes.
    The intervention will secure Sheffield Forgemasters’ role as a key supplier into the MoD for the long-term and is structured to invest substantial new capital into the modernisation of defence-critical assets, including plans for a replacement heavy forge line and building, a flood alleviation scheme and major machine tool replacements.
    David Bond, CEO at Sheffield Forgemasters, said: “The agreement to bring the company under the ownership of the MoD provides a more secure future for the business and its people.
    “The MoD’s intention is to invest up to £400m over the next 10 years to replace defence-critical equipment and infrastructure as we recapitalise our productive capacity, positioning the company to retain and create new highly skilled manufacturing jobs within the Sheffield City region.

    Read the full article here
    https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/sheffield-forgemasters-to-be-acquired-by-the-ministry-of-defence-for-ps256m-3326031

    1. Pay off for an old chum I would expect,Probably be knocking out PPE equipment in a couple of weeks time.Torys are experts at keeping the wolf from the door of chums and even better at this type of public money laundering service for hard up Torys.

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