Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has been suspended from membership of Unite over the Government’s handling of the Birmingham bin strikes, the union said following a vote of its membership.
Despite the union’s vote, a source close to Ms Rayner said she had already resigned membership of Unite some months ago.
But in a sign of a growing divide between the major union and Labour, Unite also voted to “re-examine its relationship” with the party.
The move comes after Unite members debated a motion at their conference in Brighton, where they condemned the Labour-run council in Birmingham, and the Government, for their approach to the bin workers.
The union said fire and rehire tactics had “effectively” been deployed against striking workers, who are taking industrial action in a dispute over pay and job conditions.
🚨 BREAKING. THIS IS BIG! 🚨
— Unite the union: join a union (@unitetheunion) July 11, 2025
Unite conference votes overwhelmingly to re-examine relationship with @UKLabour and suspend @AngelaRayner from Unite membership over Birmingham bins dispute.
More to follow... pic.twitter.com/rWVvhlFXly
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite is crystal clear it will call out bad employers regardless of the colour of their rosette.
“Angela Rayner has had every opportunity to intervene and resolve this dispute but has instead backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts.”
She added: “The disgraceful actions of the Government and a so-called Labour council is essentially fire and rehire and makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act promises.
“People up and down the country are asking whose side is the Labour Government on and coming up with the answer not workers.”
Earlier this week, Ms Graham suggested “workers are deserting Labour in droves”, in a signal of the union’s anger with the party.
Unite’s vote that it is to re-examine its relationship with Labour suggests it could cut the hundreds of thousands of pounds of funding it provides to the party each year.
It also voted to suspend the union membership of John Cotton, the Labour leader of Birmingham City Council, and other union members on the authority.
Responding to Unite’s vote, a Labour source said: “Angela’s not interested in silly stunts, she’s interested in changing workers’ lives. Unite rejected a deal in Birmingham and their demands would have undermined equal pay, discriminating against female workers. Angela won’t be pushed around, and she quit Unite some months ago.
“Angela’s been fighting for equal pay for decades as a trade unionist and as a home care worker has experienced what it was like to be paid less as a working class woman for the same work.”
Ms Rayner is understood to have cancelled her direct debit with Unite in April, but remains a member of the union Unison.
A Downing Street spokesman said the Government’s priority throughout the dispute had “always” been Birmingham’s residents.
The strikes have resulted in unsanitary conditions throughout the city, with large piles of rubbish in the streets.
The No 10 spokesman also told reporters: “As you know, Unite’s industrial action caused disruption to waste collection.
“We have worked intensively with the council to tackle the backlog and clean up the streets for the residents for public health.
“We remain in close contact with the council and continue to monitor the situation as we support its recovery and transformation
“I think it’s important to look back to the context of this dispute: Unite is in dispute against Birmingham City Council’s decision to reform unfair staff structures, which were a major cause of unequal pay claims and left the council liable to hundreds of millions of pounds in claims, and that was a key factor cited in the council section 114 notice in 2023, declaring bankruptcy.”
Shadow communities secretary Kevin Hollinrake said Ms Rayner “faces a serious conflict of interest, having accepted thousands of pounds from the Unite union to fund her general election campaign”.
He added: “Unions like Unite rarely offer financial support without expecting something in return — and we’re already seeing the consequences in their aggressive demands to dismantle key trade union laws.
“It’s time for all Labour ministers and the Labour-led council to take a firm stand against these militant unions. A good place to start would be suspending taxpayer-funded ‘facility time’ for Unite while their members are on strike.”
Labour is elsewhere facing pressure from unions representing public sector workers over suggestions they could get pay rises, but only in exchange for lower pension packages.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting suggested he was amenable to the move while speaking to LBC on Thursday, as resident doctors prepare for further strikes over pay.
“If the BMA (British Medical Association) want to come to me and say, do you know what, given that challenge, we think we would rather have a slightly less generous pension in order to have higher pay today. Those are the sorts of issues you can get into in a discussion, but I’ve offered to talk, they haven’t taken me up, and that’s one of many reasons I think this is unreasonable,” he said.
Downing Street urged the BMA to “step back from the brink” as it accused the union of having not yet taken up the Health Secretary’s offer to engage in talks to improve working conditions for doctors.
Responding to the suggestion, Steve Wright, Fire Brigades Union general secretary, said it would be “outrageous to raid our pensions again”, adding: “The FBU will fiercely resist any attempt to attack the pensions of firefighters and other public sector workers. Workers will not accept a false trade-off driven by austerity.”
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