Unite chief Len McCluskey hits back at rival Gerard Coyne as election race turns bitter
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The battle for the leadership of Britain's biggest union turned bitter today as Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and rival Gerard Coyne traded blows over its influence on Labour.
Challenger Mr Coyne triggered the row after criticising an interview the current union boss gave to yesterday's Mirror.
Mr McCluskey signalled Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn could quit before the 2020 general election unless “awful” polls are reversed, in an intervention which dominated the day's political agenda.
But Mr Coyne accused Mr McCluskey of acting like “a puppet master”.
(Photo: PA)
Mr McCluskey hit back saying Unite's democracy would “not be safe in” his rival's hands when the pair go head-to-head this spring.
The deepening row highlights how the tense leadership race could impact on Labour and the party hierarchy.
Mr McCluskey, who has been general secretary since 2011, said: “Unite’s democracy would not be safe in Gerard Coyne’s hands.
“His latest outburst is not an attack on myself as much as on our lay leadership and rank-and-file activists.
“He claims that I decided that Unite should support Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader in 2015 and 2016.
(Photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images)
“Yet the truth, as he is well aware, is that in 2015 this was a decision of our elected lay Executive Council, and in 2016 of our 600-strong Policy Conference, by a vast majority.
“To claim otherwise is to disrespect our membership and our democracy, while asserting that our union is a political 'puppet master' panders to the worst anti-Labour stereotypes of the media.
“These unscrupulous remarks show that Gerard Coyne’s campaign is not being driven by concern for Unite and its members’ interests.
“It is being scripted by the failed plotters in the Parliamentary Labour Party , for whom Unite would be collateral damage in their political project to bring back Blairism.
“Unite is electing a general secretary, not a politicians’ puppet.
“I urge Gerard Coyne to raise the tone of his campaign, and focus on the workplace issues which Unite members care about.”
Earlier, Mr Coyne issued a statement saying he was “astonished and deeply concerned that at a time like this, Len McCluskey should deliver what amounts to a public ultimatum to the leader of the Labour Party ”.
He added: "My criticism of his handling of the role of general secretary of Unite is not whether he has backed the right leader or the wrong leader of the Labour Party , but that he appears to think it is his job to be Labour’s puppet master.
"In 2015 and in 2016, he decided the Labour Party should be led by Jeremy Corbyn , and spent hundreds of thousands of pounds of Unite members’ money to make that happen.
“It is not in the interest of Unite’s members that the General Secretary should spend so much of his time and their money playing politics.”