Union boss Len McCluskey and Keir Starmer have not spoken in past year
Powerful union boss Len McCluskey has today said he has not spoken to Sir Keir Starmer since he became party leader last April and that “that personal relationship broke down”.
McCluskey, who is general secretary of Unite, called for Starmer to be more conciliatory toward the hard left of the party.
The Labour leader has shut Corbynites out of key roles in the party and has refused to allow Jeremy Corbyn to sit as a Labour MP due to his response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) report into antisemitism in Labour.
McCluskey last year said that his union was taking away some funding from Labour due to his unhappiness with Starmer’s actions against the party’s left.
Speaking to Times Radio today, he said: “There is a real fear at the moment that he is attempting to marginalise the left.
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“If he continues to attack the democracy in the left of the party he’ll destroy the unity of the party and the reality will be he’ll be dumped into the dustbin of history.”
It comes as Starmer is now under pressure to dump Labour’s candidate for the upcoming Hartlepool by-election Dr Paul Williams, after he sent a tweet in 2011 that has been seen as misognyist and sexist.
It was revealed over the weekend that Williams asked people on Twitter in 2011 who their “favourite Tory Milf” was.
Labour peer Baroness Shami Chakribarti said the tweet from Williams, a former MP for Stockton South was “obscene” and that he should not be Labour’s candidate for the by-election.
Conservative chair Amanda Milling said Williams is a “failed former MP who has already been rejected by the people of the North East”.
Williams has now apologised for the tweet.