The challenger for the leadership of Britain’s biggest union, Unite, has launched his manifesto with a promise to review rules that allowed the incumbent leader, Len McCluskey, to buy a flat with the help of union funds.
Gerard Coyne accused McCluskey of wasting time playing politics and – following the Guardian disclosure that Unite gave a “loan” to McCluskey of £400,000 for a flat – promised to review payments made for the benefit of union officials.
McCluskey, 66, is Jeremy Corbyn’s main union backer and Coyne has called him the Labour leader’s “puppet master”.
Unite, with 1.4 million members, gives Labour £1.5m a year and many of the party’s MPs see the election for general secretary as a battle for the soul of the Labour party.
McCluskey became the owner of the two-bedroom apartment near Borough market, just south of the Thames in London, in February. Unite put forward 60% of the cost of the flat – amounting to £417,000 – after signing an agreement with McCluskey.
Coyne, 49, the union’s West Midlands regional secretary, said under his leadership any similar payments should be run past a lay committee of individuals. Even if such a payment were approved, the union should wholly profit from any increase in any property’s value, he added.
“A lot of members have made reference to me about how around £400,000 of union money has been spent in that way. That seems like an enormous amount of money when they are on moderate and low incomes,” he told the Guardian.
“Any such payment has got to wash with the members. It might have been a common practice [in unions], but if there is going to be property provided for the general secretary, then the union should own it and benefit from the increase in the value of it.
“If members on a lay committee don’t think that is good value for money, we should adhere to what the committee says. Ultimately, you have to be able to show to members that they understand why their resources are being spent in that way. You have to have that openness.”
The union has previously said the purchase agreement was not a loan but an equity share arrangement. It added that this type of equitable agreement was commonly used to help general secretaries buy homes in London and insisted the agreement would raise more money for its members when the property was eventually sold.
Coyne also plans to review the payment of more than £6m in affiliation fees by the union every year, including money given to the Morning Star newspaper. “I believe the Morning Star gets quite a lot of money, but I would run a rule over all of our expenditure,” he said.
Critics of Coyne have claimed that Tom Watson, the deputy leader of Labour, encouraged him to stand. Watson was once a close friend of McCluskey before falling out over Corbyn.
Coyne, whose mother lives in Watson’s constituency and who, like Watson, is a West Bromwich Albion fan, said he had made his own decision to stand.
“If you think Tom Watson is some sort of puppet master in this, let me reassure you of one thing,” he said. “If I am elected general secretary of this union, I won’t be sharing a flat with Tom Watson the way the current general secretary did.
“There will be an attempt in this election to try and suggest that there is some political battle being fought by proxy within the union.
“But this illustrates my point. The fact that we have become so intertwined and tangled with the leadership issues of the Labour party means we have forgotten the core priorities that we should be doing.
“This is not a proxy war for the Labour party, it is a battle to become general secretary of Unite. I am West Midlands, not Westminster.”
Attacking McCluskey’s prominence on Labour issues, Coyne said at the launch: “Our current leader spends too much of his time - and your money - playing at Westminster politics. I will never try to be the puppet master of the Labour party.”
Coyne launched his manifesto in a bus garage in Digbeth, Birmingham, with a doubledecker bus decorated with campaign banners.
He announced five pledges to Unite members: that he would not waste time playing politics, would freeze membership subscriptions, make apprenticeships a top priority and enforce zero tolerance of bullying. On Brexit, Coyne said he would place a strong emphasis on the skills that the workforce would need to fill the gaps when Brexit limited the supply of skilled labour imported from the EU.
“Now in the UK we face a new challenge: leaving the European Union,” said Coyne. “Taking back control of borders will very likely mean leaving the single European market. That means we will have to improve skills and training throughout the UK economy in order to remain competitive.”
Responding to Coyne’s manifesto launch, McCluskey said his challenger appeared unaware of Unite’s rules and procedures. “The matter of subscription rates is for the elected executive council who will make any decision one way or another. Members are electing a general secretary, not a dictator,” he said.
“I also regret that Gerard continues to talk down Unite and its achievements. Given the challenges we have met, and are to meet, this is unworthy, especially as he knows his claims are nonsense. Unite is an open, democratic and financially well-managed union.”
McCluskey has denied claims that he has brought forward his re-election bid in a move to boost support for Corbyn in the run-up to the 2020 general election.
