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Breaking: Unite to cut Labour funding again

Unite will again cut its funding of the Labour party, as the union’s dissatisfaction with the party’s focus on attacking its members bites.

The union cut its donations under previous general secretary Len McCluskey and now Sharon Graham will follow suit.

The amount of the cut has not yet been specified.

As well as Unite’s cash, Labour has lost donations from the GMB, with the union examining further reductions. The disaffiliation of the Bakers’ union over the regime’s arrogance has also cost political funds from that union’s members.

Labour is already said to be close to broke and is now in the middle of a fourth tranche of redundancies as Starmer and his sidekick David Evans pursue their factional obsessions and eviscerate the party’s independence and political substance.

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110 comments

    1. as many as necessary to make u SteveH SH Steve Hall etc redundant.

      1. windchime – I have never ever been employed in any capacity by the Labour Party.

      2. Why don’t you tell us something interesting, like what’s the weather like where you are?

      3. Hi timfrom, hope u r well. Been restoring myself with a break. Everyone should have one😄
        Interestingly, after Rayner’s last PMQs, SIR Keith Starmer having claimed Covid-19 for the umpteenth time, polls narrowed a bit. Hide Keith -> polls improve. Guess what? BOTH Sir Keith + Sadiq Khan were banned from Old Bexley & Sidcup by-election. ERASED they dared not visit🤣. Keith & Khan also kept off all leaflets etc. London Khan, London MP Sir Keith & gang know they are TOXIC … DESPISED by the electorate in LONDON and everywhere else 🎉🎉🎉

        No surprise, still stench sucked all success against the worst… LITERALLY most DEADLY corrupt government since Blair!!! Large number of good people of Old Bexley & Sidcup and THROUGHOUT the land, know Johnnie of Piffel is a lazy liar, but Sir Keith & Khan r even worse… not the lazy bit. They work hard at deceiving.

        Keith promised to keep Jeremy’s policies and promptly broke all. Promised unity… broke that. Petty pricking of his Deputy Rayner… no party invite for her. Chaos and infighting. Serves Rayner right for her own treachery. Mr Remain Keith … promptly dumped Remainiacry too! Forensically dishonest Sir Keith.
        At least the Rejoin Party stuck to their beliefs -> in the dregs with the UKIP, Monster Raving Loony Party. Limp Dims & The Greens …ALL behind a tiny new iteration of the Brexit Party … The Reform Party who got more than double the Green vote and almost double the Limp Dims … and more than both combined!

        Long established monied Limp Dims & Greens LOST their deposits. V interesting considering Limp Dems r masters at local by-elections. They have a different policy for each doorstep… now??? Lost their deposit🎉🎉🎉
        SIR Keith & Khan rejected in Old Bexley & Sidcup; A brand new party without admin vast machinery, managed 3rd place!!! What’s not to like?!?!?!
        Love it, love it, L O V E IT🎉🎉🎉

      4. I am not surprised steve h..centrist Dad,davidh…mr Hall ex job centre advisor…let go…. “I have never been employed in any capacity” .ITs a jungle out there Stevie boy 👦….welcome back Signpostwindchimes and a happy ☺Christmas.

      5. Thank u dear Joseph!!! Happy Christmas to u too!!! It always comes around soooo quickly
        😁😁😁

      1. qwertboi – The victims will be those that lose their jobs.

      2. The victims are people who need a Labour party to be for the Many, not the Few.

        “What time is it, Mr Wolf?
        “10 Pledges o’clock!”

        Slurp, slurp, gobble, gobble.

    2. When a company fails to get enough customers to buy its product, it will make staff redundant. Who is to blame? Surely it is those running the company and not the customers. Despite being so “business friendly”, Starmer clearly doesn’t recognise that this applies equally to political parties too – and neither does someone else.

    3. How many redundancies will the actions of kicking out thousands innocent socialist members from its party on trumped up charges, thus losing valuable subs, trigger ?

    4. It was the unions who formed the Labour Party, originally called the Labour Representation Committee, or have you forgotten. Representing organised, and for that matter unorganised labour, is supposed to be the the main function of the Labour Party. The Labour Party in the last 40 years or so, with the notable exception of Corbyn’s leadership, has singularly failed to fulfill that function. Whether it be the miners, the printers, the RMT etc… Labour has followed a path specifically laid out for it by the British ruling class. The dregs of the party, the PLP, has enthusiastically followed the Establishment plan- make the working class pay for the crisis of capitalism, whether that be the recessions of the 1980s and 1990s or the more serious slump from 2008 onwards. These dregs have fully supported cuts imposed on the most vulnerable, the sick, the disabled, those with severe and enduring mental health issues etc…

      If the Unions wish to cut funding or even form a new party, that is their right.

      1. john – Thanks for the history lesson, but how far living in the past is going to get you is open to discussion, particularly when one considers that the infamous Oldknow currently holds a very senior unelected position in Unison. Some of the Union’s appear to be part of the problem rather than a solution.
        Nobody is disputing that the unions have a right to spend their money where they feel it best serves their membership. Although what sort of mandate Unite’s leader actually has when only about 5% of the membership actually bothered to vote for her is debatable.
        As I’ve said elsewhere most union members would strongly support Labour’s current policies.
        https://skwawkbox.org/2021/12/02/breaking-unite-to-cut-labour-funding-again/#comment-207337

      2. @SteveH

        It is you who is living in the past- a Blairite/Mandelson/Brown/third way past. They/it failed. Fancy bailing out the backbone of finance capitalism, the banks, by nationalising their debt rather than the profitable part, high street banking. They/it showed their true allegiance- to capitalism and the ruling class. When it came to the slump of 2008, which is still ongoing for most of us in case you haven’t noticed, it was they who initiated austerity with a series of cuts on the most vulnerable- harsher tests on the sick and disabled and cuts to mental health services.

        Starmer is more of the same. In fact I’d go as far as to state the obvious- there can be only two explanations you can come to, either Starmer fully believes in capitalism, or he is an agent for the ruling class. Either way his and Evans use of expulsion by decree does not bode well for democracy let alone socialism in this country. In that sense he’s as big a threat as Bojo.

      3. john – I’m not the one who’s obsessing about Blair etc.

    5. SteveH
      You don’t make people redundant when you have £14 million in reserves
      Not unless you are
      Bent as a 9 bob note and you have pissed it up against the wall
      Or
      You can see the Financial pandemic coming over the horizon and you are battening down the hatches
      Guess which it is

    6. Who cares as long as they’re all right wing Blairites!Who do they think they are to give millions no one to vote for?

  1. Hey, they’re broke, in the gutter, not representing the masses, dead as a political force … but at least they’re saying all the right things to keep Tel Aviv happy.

    1. Job’s nearly done, they’ll be selling off the real estate soon. To one of Blair’s Property Developer mates.

      1. Very good point. I know that some CPGBers tried sit in to keep hold of some estate but the tops just called the cops. Guess the rest. To misquote Sandy Denny, “Who knows where the wealth goes”.

  2. Is Starmer one of the three Monkeys or all of em?
    See no,
    Speak no,
    Hear no.
    Wake up Starmer and stop your crazy march backwards to Blairs time!!
    We the Socialists want our Party to be our Party, no longer kowtowing to the stinking rich.
    Right Wing Tory Fascist Party are so far up their arses through brown envolopes along with receiving huge donations to be made Lords!!
    I for one am sick to my back teeth of the corruption going on in our elected parliamentarians!!

  3. Labour Died in 1997 it was resurrected by OUR TRUE LABOUR LEADER The one and only The Right Honourable Jeremy Corbyn and was Murdered by Corrupt Lying English Media,Peers of the Realm,Rotten on the take Bent MPs especially Hodge,Sugar,Phillips,Starmer et al

  4. Good. Whilst some may wish some funding to still go to Labour perhaps unions should use the money saved to host a conference to explore forming and funding a new left wing democratic socialist party who WILL fight for diverse working people.
    “This union branch believes that Labour under Right Wing, Trilateral Commission member, Keir Starmer, has become the third major Neo-Liberal Capitalist Party in the UK, and with it’s weak opposition to the Tory Govt we believe our union members are not getting value for money for our political funding contribution.
    For example they have not even committed to repealing the Tory Anti-Trade Union laws that was promised by Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour.
    We therefore call upon the union to call and host an exploratory meeting with other interested trade unions and reps from the small democratic socialist party Breakthrough, and Resist, with the view to forming a new Left Wing Democratic Socialist Party which will fight for our diverse members and for the wider diverse community, and then some of our funding should also go to such a party.
    We further believe that to ensure diversity we should also invite BLM, expelled members of JVL and other diverse groups to send reps to such a meeting.
    We believe such a move could make history.”
    Perhaps get this to your union branch.
    Socialist Solidarity!

      1. Timfrom this is only a work in progress and all diverse citizens would have to join as individuals and I am trying to ensure diversity so BME, Disabled, LGBT are involved at the start and not as an afterthought.
        But send your own version to your union.
        Such a Left Wing Democratic Socialist Party could support:
        * Democratic public ownership of rail, Mail, water, public utilities, banks, land, BA, airports and a publicly owned pharma with staff and communities having a say.
        *A 10% tax on the rich (£69b) and a Financial Transaction Tax (£250b).
        * Close tax havens, a bonfire of upper class welfare state tax reliefs and subsidies – let them stand on their own two feet.
        * The repeal of all Tory Anti-Trade Union Laws.
        *Free Public Transport on the Buses to help the environment, staff, the transport poor.
        * A New Green Deal which locates jobs in areas of industrial decline.
        * A 4 day week without loss of pay and earlier retirement.
        * Free Social Care in a national publicly owned service.
        * Kick the private sector out of the NHS and public service contracts.
        * State led public investment to feed the private sector supply chain and boost jobs and put pounds in peoples’ pocket to buy commodities and further boost the economy.
        * Create a World Peace Alliance, bringing Russia, Iran, N. Korea etc in with NATO – what no enemies?
        * Social Mortgages – you own 50% of a home and rest on 200 year lease.
        * Decent Social Security for All.
        And more.

    1. I would have thought that most trade unionists would support these Labour Party policies

      ▪ Fair pay agreements. “A Labour government will bring together representatives of workers and employers to negotiate pay and conditions in every sector. Collective bargaining in every sector will▪ end the free market free-for-all that encourages undercutting, exploitation and a race to the bottom.”
      ▪ Give all workers rights from day one in their jobs: sick pay, holiday pay, parental leave and protection against unfair dismissal.
      ▪ Create one, single worker status, banning bogus self-employment.
      ▪ Ban zero-hour contracts and ensure all contracts come with minimum hours and reflect normal working life, requiring notice of shift changes and pay.
      ▪ End fire and rehire. “Labour will end the scandalous practice of fire and rehire once and for all.”
      ▪ Introduce a new right to flexible working as the default, protections for those with caring responsibilities and a right to switch off.
      ▪ Increase statutory sick pay and make it universal.
      ▪ Put mental health and safety on a legal par with physical health and safety, and make sure the laws are enforced by a new, empowered watchdog.
      ▪ Sign into law the new deal for working people within the first 100 days of coming to office.

      1. Depends which Labour party promtes them – obviously not one lead (sic) by a fully committed supporter of The Trilateral Commission and the planned New World Order they support.

      2. SteveH
        New Labour Blah Blah Blah
        Temporary Embarrassment will he keep any of the 10 pledges
        Do you believe in Santa / Fairies / Leprechauns

    1. And just keep 10 nuclear weapons (some people are frightened) and save £475b to spend on human need such as addressing cancer, social housing, poverty, health, poverty, but Right Wing Labour would crap themselves at such a socialist proposal.

  5. Sensible step.

    It’s been clear for some time that the unions will get absolutely nothing out of any govt run by the likes of Starmer and Reeves. In the unlikely event they found themselves in power they’d try to make a virtue out of opposing union demands to earn plaudits from the right-wing media commentariat. Much as they do now opposing the left and rubbishing Corbyn’s agenda. And corporate & wealthy individuals’ funding would fill the gap, as power is never short of friends with deep pockets, as Blair and Mandelson realised..

    All the unions need to similarly drive home the message that the Labour party doesn’t exist to be some vanity project for careerists with a questionable commitment to socialist values.

  6. At every NEC meeting there should be a set of management’s accounts, tell me this is the case
    We should not be guessing the financial position we should know
    Has anyone not cancelled their D/D

  7. Why have we had to wait for some movement like this? OK it’s in the right direction but probably not enough. Something like all Unions pulling out of the affiliation with this hard right party would do the trick but it needs to happen soon.

  8. A real problem for Max and Frankenstein. Can their mates help them out. Some of them have cases of cash. When the dust settles who will represent Benny and Benjy in the house. Oh yeah, the pretty one and Mann, hero of rent a mob can be relied upon. Wishful thinking again just like stay and change the party?

  9. I do not want my union subs going to the party even though I’m an affiliate.

    1. bedroc56 – That is your choice but if you decide to end your affiliation you’ll lose your Labour party voting rights.

      1. This is true. However people have already lost the right to vote on motions about Starmer, Evans or Israel.

  10. Hodge will not stand at the next GE. If Starmer doesn’t put her forward for the House of Lords I’ll eat a bacon sandwich.

      1. Yvette Cooper was officially endorsed by ‘everyone’ on BBC Question Time’ panel last night, as the preferred choice for next Labour Party Leader. Out of the pot. into the fire.

      2. BBC question time, BBC, ITV, Channel 4, all well and truly exposed themselves 2015 to 2020.
        BBC Question Time however, with the fake audience, cutting and banning the Left, truly is a safe opposite rule, whatever is their good is The PEOPLE’S Bad, whatever is their bad is The PEOPLE’S good!
        How people come to conclusions that Copper is somehow UK Labour Party, whe her and fellow Neo-New-Labour Party Parasite TORY Benn went to Downing Street on an anti Corbyn Mission! Now if there were people on “the left” who considder her on “the left” what message did they take home from just that one Cowardly Cooper Coup! You are bang on Steve pan to fire, that one!
        #BoycottALLmsm!

  11. It’s great news and hopefully the starting gun for a challenge
    The other great news was the victory over the Daily Heil by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, the sooner we sign them up the better
    My enemies enemy is my friend, they have proved the MSM and toilet papers can be held to account, they also enjoy the support of the same core demographic of a progressive socialist Labour party

    1. Doug – I very much doubt that there will be a challenge for the leadership before the next general election. Why would they, what do they have to gain?

      1. Doug – That’s an interesting perspective, So you think that the Union’s are going flock back to Labour when Yvette Cooper is in charge/ 🤔

      2. SteveH
        Red Tory
        New Labour showed electorate don’t want choice of two cheap and nasty parties
        What they are screaming our for is Clear Red Water

      3. Of Course not! The Omnilateral Commission already decided that Blue Keef is the next PM, unless the votes are secured, we can vote however we like, The *?*lateral Commission will do the deciding for us! And so 45 Years of TORY HELL becomes 50, becomes 55, becomes 60…….
        Look how SHITE BoJoke the Inbred was during the 2019 Campaign, if he visited 5 Towns, that was a lot, not to mention getting physically chased out of Towns! Had to Enter and Exit Studios via the backdoor in fear of answering questions from the massive crowds outside the Front Door Gathered for his losing opponent! Just stopped doing interviews, debates, etc, etc, etc, etc! Yet the Electorallateral Commission want the Nation to sit comfortable with the results! No matter how much MORE SHITE Blue Keef gets, he’ll be in Nr10. I predict record numbers of One Way Tickets sold on that Horrific day of Ultimate Disaster in British History.
        Jeff Bezos’ description of earth after humans left for Space is VERY apt, without hesitation or query he said That Earth will be inhabited by a very small SELECT FEW, everyone else will work in space!
        To just have that SELECT FEW will decide your minion fate attitude, is very telling of the state of humanity!

      4. nellyskelly – It makes one wonder why so many of the working class placed their trust in Boris instead of Jeremy at the 19GE.

      5. nellyskelly – It has never happened before, Can you explain why they preferred Boris to Jeremy?

      6. SteveH, you can go back to post history, you have been provided with more than enough evidence. Your ignorance burrows your head in the sand, no need to try an waste my time for your ignorance and lack of memory.

      7. nellyskelly – You could try something novel and answer the question.

      8. But you STILL refuse to answer the question about any Progressive policies even hinted at by your dullard hero!

      9. It’s blatant and in your face, been discussed, been disected all over the internet, all over Skwawkbox Forum, by Skwawkbox, if you really are so dense that you can’t see what stares/stared you in the face and after getting the answers to your questions spoon-fed, with researched evidence. Well tthen I am afraid your ignorance overpowers your sensibilities.
        Am I going give you what you already have? No, not even after one of your pathetically childish insults.
        Now go and play with the other children, wherever that is.

      10. Because they wanted the much promised Brexit and Starmer and his mates were suggesting they might cancel the Referendum. It was a stab in the back.

      11. Paul – I find it odd that they chose to desert Labour for a RW neocon policy. Did they really trust Jeremy so little.

      12. They rightly distrusted Starmer and his friends. Check out the 2017 results to spot the difference.

      13. A false narrative of epic proportions. The very idea of a 2nd Referendum in 2020 on Brexit was bound to piss off most of the electorate. The traitors knew that very well and saw their hopes justified with a Labour defeat.

      14. Paul – Not at all,, voters were asked for their opinions and gave them.

      15. The issue was what question was asked! I think you’re close to admitting the truth about the stab in the back by the crew currently In Charge.

    2. Only if you are royalty or can afford to pay vast amounts of money in legal fees, then justice is for all equally.

  12. Old Bexley and Sidcup

    Tory win but Sky are reporting a 10.2% swing to Labour

  13. 34% turnout.
    How many more votes did the LP get when compared with the GE?

    1. Ah! Found it.
      Old Bexley and Sidcup Labour votes.
      2019 – 10,834
      2021 – 6,711
      I make that 4,123 fewer votes than in 2019 – roughly a 40% fall in support.
      What a triumph!

      1. Goldbach….thanks for that. We already have Max’s Head Turdpolisher on here presenting a 40% fall in the vote as a success. I wonder how his boss will present that failure today to the MSM?

      2. Goldbach, as an aside. Labour’s vote share was it’s lowest since the seat was created in 1983. Quite an achievement
        don’t you think? Sinking like a stone…..

  14. A further aside for the Bexley and Sidcup vote. Labour votes since 2015.

    2015 Miliband 8,879.
    2017 Corbyn 14,079.
    2019 Corbyn. 10,834.
    2021 Starmer. 6,711

    1. ‘SH skewered by Goldbach.
      And Baz21 stuck the final knife in.
      Right Wing Labour empty policy completely exposed.
      And Left Wing Democratic Socialist ideas will win!
      We just need an organised great group of human beings to sing this from the same sheet.
      Socialist Solidarity!

    1. Bare – a suburb of Morecambe (if Morecambe can be large enough to be said to have suburbs).
      Decades ago there used to be a building carrying the slogan “Bare Women’s Institute”.
      Almost as good as the one in a suburb of Bradford called Idle – “Idle Working Men’s Club”.
      I wonder if either of those are still there.

      1. I lived in Loose near Maidstone in Kent as a child and remember when the WI changed the name from ‘The Loose Women’s Institute’ to the ‘Women’s Institute of Loose’.

      2. goldbach
        Local reporter was getting signed into a Conservative Club, he could see into the bar and noticed every former Conservative PM except the milk snatcher
        So he asked the doormen about it
        ‘No women in the bar’ was the answer

      1. You don’t ‘lead’ by signing a Petition when asked! A revealing comment I think!

      2. Paul – Only if you are really desperate to score points that don’t exist. I signed the petition several hours ago.

  15. Sharon Graham has commissioned a QC-led inquiry into the construction of the Unite the Union Birmingham hotel and conference centre, after an estimate of its value was found to be lower than the cost of the project.

    Announcing the inquiry today, the general secretary said an audit of the project “gave the accounts a clean bill of health” but added: “A recent expert valuation has now estimated its value as being considerably lower than the costs incurred in developing the site.”

    Graham declared: “I am therefore commissioning an independent inquiry to be led by a QC and supported by an external law firm in order to review the costs incurred and address the question of how and why this difference has arisen.

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