With Keir Starmer’s approval, Lisa Nandy today became the most well-known Labour frontbencher to support striking employees on a picket line.
In her Wigan district this morning, the shadow foreign secretary was seen speaking with BT employees as the Communication Workers Union (CWU) members staged their second consecutive walkout.
It comes after Sam Tarry was fired as transport minister last week for supporting RMT train workers who put millions of people’s travels through hardship.
MailOnline understands, however, that Ms. Nandy asked Sir Keir for permission to support staff today, and he granted it.
Labour said that Mr. Tarry’s dismissal was due to these interviews and the policy he concocted during them, not for participating in the picket, when he was fired.
Ms. Nandy did not participate in any interviews this morning, and the RMT is not a member of Labour, although the CWU is.
Because Mr. Tarry, the boyfriend of Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner, was fired, Sir Keir has been subject to a significant backlash from the union supporters of the party, including threats to withhold funds.
However, Sir Keir reiterated that his main objective is to transform Labour from a “party of protest” into a force capable of taking power.
The CWU is setting up picket lines outside of business locations across the nation and is requesting that people bring food that it will then deliver to nearby food banks.
The walkout is in protest of an overall pay raise of £1,500, which the CWU claims will result in a real salary reduction due to the high rate of inflation.
The industrial action will be the most recent in a string of walkouts involving union members, including railway workers, Post Office employees, and garbage collectors that have been sweeping the nation.
The acrimonious rail issue will continue with further strikes planned for the upcoming weeks.
After joining the RMT train workers on strike in London and participating in several media interviews, Mr. Tarry, an Ilford South MP, was let go from his position as a shadow transport minister on Wednesday.
Sir Keir has consistently urged frontbenchers to avoid picket lines in order to maintain their reputation as a mature group capable of leading.
However, the firing of Mr. Tarry prompted a bitter dispute between the party administration and the unions.
Militant bosses have threatened to stop funding the party and to use their influence to change party rules in order to pressure Labour to support workers who are organising a summer of unrest.
In the most recent escalation of the conflict, Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, which pays the party more than £1 million in affiliation fees annually, said to the People: “If I were speaking to Keir right now, I would ask him: Which side are you on?
Because it’s a fact that sometimes I wouldn’t be able to tell if the Tories or the Labour party were speaking if I closed my eyes.
“You need to demonstrate that you firmly believe in defending employees,” she advised. The fact is that if you don’t do it, you are no longer the party for workers.
She stated that it was becoming “harder and harder to defend” the money for Labour problem in a separate interview with the Observer, where she also expected it will be discussed at the upcoming Unite convention.
Giving money to a party that is essentially giving the working class the finger is pointless. It resembles an abusive relationship virtually, she claimed.
Separately, the leader of the train drivers’ union, which is still connected to Labour, declared that Sir Keir erred by removing Mr. Tarry from his front-bencher position during the rail strike last week.
“I openly called out his judgement on Sam Tarry in the week, I think it was the wrong decision,” said Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, to LBC.
But he insisted, “I do know he favours employees generally.”
Additionally, he generally follows a policy of talking about economic development and the transition to a greener economy once Labour is in power after the current administration has damaged the economy for 12 years.
Sir Keir’s relationship with labour unions, according to Mr. Whelan, is “mostly cordial, occasionally combative – we are firm critical friends,” when asked to explain it.
It comes after a Labour mayor urged the leader of his party to support strikes and allow MPs to sit on picket lines.
‘I think the vast mass of the party is with the trade unions on this,’ North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll told Times Radio.
And Keir will show strong leadership by pointing out that the situation has changed.
We understand that we must support others.
Therefore, I hope that is where we will ultimately arrive.
But a senior Labour MP argued that the controversy had been exaggerated.
GB News was informed by Carolyn Harris that “Keir’s relationship with the unions is fine.”
The party leader, according to her, is “much more pragmatic” than his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, and “understands that we have to work with the unions, but we’ve also got to appeal to the public in order to get elected in the next general election when it comes,” she said.