THE SNP have said Sir Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar have been “left exposed” on a second independence referendum as the party welcomed the election of Sharon Graham’s as Unite’s new general secretary.
During the campaign for the position, Graham was the only candidate to publish a dedicated manifesto on Scotland and the other devolved nations.She hit out over Boris Johnson’s opposition to a second independence referendum and said a new vote should be up to people who live in Scotland.
Responding to her election, Rona Mackay, the SNP MSP, said: “It’s entirely right and proper that the new leader of one of the country’s biggest unions recognises and respects Scottish democracy.
“But it leaves Labour’s Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar ever more exposed for their continued denial of the cast iron mandate for a Scottish independence referendum for recovery.
“Labour is shamefully out of step and out of touch with large chunks of their own supporters and the trade union movement.
“It’s well past time Labour woke up and stopped siding with Boris Johnson against the will of the people of Scotland.”
READ MORE: Sharon Graham, underdog candidate who's open to indyref2, wins Unite contest
Graham received 37.7% of the vote, beating Steve Turner, a fellow leftwinger backed by McCluskey.
Turner, who received 33.8% of the vote, was seen as favourite to become the leader of the UK’s second largest union, which is the biggest donor to the Labour party. Gerard Coyne, seen as the “centrist” candidate, received 28.5% of the vote.
Although there are 1.2 million Unite members, only 123,866 votes were cast, with Graham receiving 46,696, Turner 41,833 and Coyne 35,334.
Graham, a senior Unite official, was widely portrayed as the underdog in a contest that initially was presented primarily as between Turner, the candidate of the Unite establishment and the left, and Coyne.
Starmer, welcomed the news by tweeting: “Congratulations to UniteSharon on her election as general secretary of Unite – the first ever woman to hold that role. I’m looking forward to working together to improve the lives of working people across the country.”
In a statement welcoming her election, Graham said she won because Unite members wanted change.
In a reference to McCluskey’s many public complaints about Labour’s shift to the right before and after Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, Graham said: “Unite members have spoken. They want change. They have rallied, in their tens of thousands, to our demand that Unite should get back to the workplace and deliver what it says on the trade union tin – a relentless fight for jobs, pay and conditions.”
She also said that as general secretary she would “fight against the gross injustices that blight the lives of our members” and that she would in particular resist the use of “fire and rehire” tactics of “rogue employers”.
After the announcement of the result, McCluskey said: “Sharon has been a valued and close friend and an integral part of my senior team throughout my time in office so I know from experience that she is a talented, dedicated and passionate trade unionist. I have every faith that she will run our union in a manner true to its fighting back spirit.”
Graham, who is said to be less keen on developing a profile in the national media than her predecessor, started work as a silver service waiter at 16, and organised her first walkout for better pay and conditions when she was 17. She has been a union organiser for more than 20 years and at Unite she has headed the organising and leverage department, which specialises in taking on hostile employers – including by putting pressure on multinationals through linking local disputes to a company’s interests worldwide. Unite claims her team has a “100% winning track record”.
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