Supporters of Len McCluskey are planning to run a slate of candidates for positions in Britain’s biggest union as their general secretary prepares to stand down.
A new faction calling itself Unite Alliance hopes to take up positions on the executive council, according to the group’s website, which appears to anticipate McCluskey’s resignation.
Union sources on Monday confirmed McCluskey had told executive council members he hoped to resign and then stand again to lead Unite.
McCluskey’s influence and the union’s money have been crucial in winning the Labour leadership for Jeremy Corbyn and supporting him for 15 months. McCluskey’s critics believe he may have to gain more support on the executive council if he is to maintain support for Corbyn.
Gerard Coyne, the regional secretary of Unite for the West Midlands, who has argued against some of McCluskey’s political decisions, is expected to stand against him.
Unite Alliance’s website calls on Unite’s 1.4 million members to recognise that McCluskey has done a good job and refers to his anticipated resignation. It said: “We are fortunate to currently have a general secretary in Len McCluskey who always has and always will have members’ best interests at heart and who truly believes in a ‘fighting back union’.
“However, when the election for the general secretary of Unite is announced, this means the future direction of our union is once again uncertain and it is our job as reps to provide that certainty, because all of us will remember that ‘fighting back’ was not always high on the agenda with some past general secretaries.”
Union representatives needed to be relevant and ready to take action, the website said. “We feel there is no better place to start than by ensuring that the highest decision-making body of our union, our executive council, is made up of people who not only reflect those concerns but will act upon them,” it said.
Unite’s executive council meets on Tuesday after McCluskey told allies on Monday he planned to stand down on Wednesday.
Union insiders have raised concerns with the Guardian that McCluskey has been too involved in internal Labour politics rather than fighting for its members. McCluskey was criticised by some council members after the Guardian disclosed that the union had helped him to buy a £700,000 flat near Borough Market in south London.
Unite is now Labour’s most generous donor and has provided a number of staff members for Corbyn’s office. The union’s supporters hold crucial votes on Labour’s national executive committee and McCluskey’s friend Karie Murphy is Corbyn’s office manager.
McCluskey was elected as general secretary in November 2010, a few months after Ed Miliband became Labour leader. He was re-elected in 2013 for a five-year term, but if he wins a new mandate it would authorise him to continue his support for Corbyn’s leadership.
A Militant sympathiser in the 1980s, McCluskey was national secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union and became assistant general secretary of Unite, formed from a merger of the TGWU and Amicus.
Unite’s press officers have failed to respond to requests for a comment.
