\n<\/p>\n
Unite\u2019s general secretary, Sharon Graham, has told the government it must do more for workers in 2026 or risk sowing the seeds of its own destruction.<\/p>\n
Graham accused Labour of being preoccupied with its \u201cfailing leadership\u201d and described the debate about who might replace Keir Starmer as inevitable.<\/p>\n
Writing in the Times, she said: \u201cFor too long it has been everyday people, workers and communities who have paid the price for crisis after crisis not of their making. In 2026 this must stop. The government needs to decide what it stands for and who it stands for. If we have to ask, it is not working.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe party faithful can agonise about its failing leadership and a \u2018night of the long knives\u2019. But a new Labour leadership with the same policies simply won\u2019t cut it. The doom loop cannot be broken with more austerity lite, no matter who is in Downing Street.<\/p>\n
\u201cBritain needs vision. We led the first Industrial Revolution and we are nowhere in the fourth. Rudderless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graham said the next prime minister would face the same problems unless they undertook a shift in policy, and that replacing Starmer with the former deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner; the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham; the health secretary, Wes Streeting, or the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, would not persuade workers to back Labour.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt cannot just be a question of changing the leader or improving the sales pitch,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is much agonising right now about whether, when and who should replace the prime minister. That is inevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unite, Labour\u2019s most powerful union backer, was the only union that did not endorse the party\u2019s manifesto \u201cas it did not back jobs\u201d, Graham said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe fought back on the winter fuel allowance cut and the self-harm of net zero targets that came without the needed investment in new industries. Trade unions are there to fight for workers, not to side with politicians,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the recent budget, Labour opting for stealth taxes on workers instead of a wealth tax on the mega-rich was the wrong choice. Labour must stop being embarrassed to be the voice of workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the coming year, if this government does not depart from its current path, it will surely be sowing the seeds of its own destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Unite\u2019s general secretary, Sharon Graham, has told the government it must do more for workers in 2026 or risk sowing the seeds of its own destruction. Graham accused Labour of being preoccupied with its \u201cfailing leadership\u201d and described the debate about who might replace Keir Starmer as inevitable. Writing in the Times, she said: \u201cFor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[9217,134,135,415,272,3622,8229,1438],"class_list":{"0":"post-39599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-embarrassed","9":"tag-labour","10":"tag-leader","11":"tag-stop","12":"tag-tells","13":"tag-unite","14":"tag-voice","15":"tag-workers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}