Louise Haigh, the UK first secretary, got a standing ovation from trade union members in Brighton this week, as she acknowledged what she called “the necessity to be bolder in this second chance that we’ve been allowed”. Haigh was the stand-in at the annual TUC congress for Andy Burnham, absent because of his father’s death. The headlines from the seaside gathering were dominated by party funding, after Reform announced £72m of donations in a single weekend and Unite called for a cap on donations by individuals in response.
But as they gathered to swap gossip in Brighton’s pubs and hotel bars, senior union figures seemed reinvigorated for the moment by the “Burnham bounce”. Relations between the new No 10 team and the unions – including those less than popular with Keir Starmer’s regime – have improved significantly; general secretaries speak warmly of recent chats with “Andy”. Yet there is a clear sense that the real tests are to come – on the implementation of improved workers’ rights; on oil and gas licences, of particular concern to Unite and the GMB; and on John Healey’s crucial autumn budget.
TUC delegates voted through policy statements on a slew of tricky issues in Burnham’s prime ministerial in-tray, from the future relationship with the EU – unions want him to drop Labour’s “red lines” – to Shabana Mahmood’s migration reforms. And senior union figures were keen to point to issues they see as make-or-break. Joanne Thomas, the general secretary of Usdaw, said she was pleased to see her former schoolmate Jonathan Reynolds back in cabinet as business secretary – but would judge him by results.
In particular, she hopes to see the provisions in the Employment Rights Act on abolishing zero-hours contracts implemented in a way that embraces all workers in the retail and hospitality sectors she represents. We want everybody to have a contract that reflects the hours they work.” The TUC is also gearing up to campaign on the issue in the coming weeks and months. BIST has so much to do, I worry that the labour stuff gets lost,” she warned.
Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect, whose members include scientists and engineers – and which is not affiliated to Labour – expresses a similar concern, from a different perspective. Prospect is campaigning against real-terms cuts to science budgets by the taxpayer-backed UK Research and Innovation agency. Clancy frets that folding science into the department may lead to it being seen primarily through a business lens.
The GMB and Unite are waiting anxiously for the government’s ruling on the controversial question of whether to allow drilling in the Jackdaw gas and Rosebank oilfields. A decision had previously been expected this week, but appears to have been postponed until after the Holborn and St Pancras byelection in early October, in which the Green party’s leader in England, Zack Polanski, is standing. The two unions’ leaders are such ardent champions of continuing to exploit the North Sea’s declining fields, that Unite’s Sharon Graham and the GMB’s Gary Smith raised concerns about the idea that former energy secretary Ed Miliband would be Burnham’s chancellor.
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