Sharon Graham has been re-elected general secretary of Unite, winning a decisive victory over her opponent – challenger Simon Dubbins – with 69 per cent of the vote.
Graham was first elected five years ago, replacing Len McCluskey who retired from the role in 2021. In this year’s race, which concluded on 11 August, Graham took 68,694 votes to Dubbins’ 31,130 votes. Turnout, however, was extremely low at only 10 per cent. The union distributed 970,945 ballots and only 100,089 were returned. This is the first time that fewer than a million ballots have been posted. Unite claims to have between 1.1 and 1.2 million members.
Graham’s re-election is significant for the government. Unite is the second-largest union affiliated to the Labour Party (behind Unison) and a major donor. Last year, under Graham’s leadership, the union announced it would cut funding to the party by 40 per cent. However, during the Labour leadership election, the union backed Burnham.
During her time as general secretary, Graham has been a vocal critic of Keir Starmer’s government and locked heads with Angela Rayner during her previous stint as housing secretary over the ongoing Birmingham bin strikes.
She has also been a vocal critic of some of the net zero policies implemented by Ed Miliband in his previous role as energy and net zero secretary. In response to the government’s manifesto position of no new oil and gas licences, Unite has pushed for “no ban without a plan”. Her re-election will likely mean the continuation of these tensions between the unions and the government. New Prime Minister Andy Burnham has suggested that his government will not roll back the manifesto commitment, but it is possible that he will approve the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields in the North Sea.
Dubbins was seen as a left-wing challenger to Graham. He is Unite’s international director and an executive member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. In a video released during the campaign, Dubbins criticised Graham’s leadership for destroying “internal cohesion and unity”, financially damaging the union and dragging the union “away from our wider movement.” However, his campaign did not receive enough support to overturn Graham’s incumbency.
For now, Unite has backed Burnham’s leadership. But the relationship between the union and the Labour Party is clearly changing – and a new Prime Minister cannot count on the union’s support at any cost.
[Further reading: Inside the battle to control Labour]
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