Unite has a clear message for Labour: change or die

Labour’s crisis is being forged by the same working-class communities that gave birth to the party. This is not about a leader. It is much more than that. Labour’s crisis is existential. It is a crisis of representation, of purpose, of values.

Ten days ago, Labour lost swathes of our cities, the Midlands and the north. The knockout blow was not based on low turnouts and apathy. More voters turned up to the polls, not fewer.

And not for the first time. The working class have had enough of the status quo. The message to the Labour party is clear: change or die.

Labour cannot exist without the working class. It cannot survive without the “red wall” or the new precariat. It cannot survive without the traditional working class of our towns or the new working class of disillusioned graduates inhabiting our cities.

And one thing is clear: they are leaving Labour. They may be headed for different destinations, but only after they have left Labour’s station.

The only issue that unites the working class of town and city, of north and south, is the economy. The desire for a good job, a decent home, the hope of a reasonable retirement and services that work.

It’s not rocket science. Only a new long-term economic vision for Britain, one rooted in the working class, will save the Labour party. This is the decisive moment, and any new leader would have to pronounce the death of neoliberalism.

It will be full-fat social democracy – or nothing.

Labour will have to talk openly of public ownership and show how regaining control of sectors such as energy and water can help tackle the cost of living crisis. It will slam and tax the profiteers that have driven food prices ever upward. It will deliver a sea change in public investment, one that drives the reindustrialisation of our nations.

It will use net zero to deliver jobs and the rebirth of manufacturing, not stand by while 30,000 oil and gas workers face a jobs Armageddon in the North Sea. It will renationalise refineries such as Grangemouth and Lynsey to secure our fuel supply, not let them close and turn to Nigeria for assistance. It will tax the super-rich, not shower them with platitudes and beg for crumbs from their table.

And it will deliver a creative plan to use workers’ capital, including pension funds, to reduce our reliance on the bond markets.

Above all, it will be based on values. First among them accountability. Those who create a crisis must pay for it. Bankers’ bonuses will be capped. There will be a wealth tax. There will now be accountability at the top as well as at the bottom.

And it will be responsive; where communities are changing and people are unhappy, investment will replace sneering.

If instead Labour chooses to once again only tinker with the economy, cowed by the mere mention of interest rates and fiscal rules, then the party will writhe on the spike of its contradictions. It will tear itself apart on Europe and culture wars, delivering little more than soundbites and piecemeal policies to improve the standard of living.

It will be left in a circular firing squad, tempted to tack rightward on immigration to combat Reform UK in one area, but fearful of losing votes to the Greens in another.

The only road to redemption lies in a fundamental economic reset. It’s the economy, stupid. It’s jobs. It’s homes. It’s services.

The working class has borne the brunt of decades of Thatcherism and the multitude of crises it has created. Deregulation and offshoring led to millions of layoffs in manufacturing, to be replaced by insecure, low-paid jobs. Privatisation led to the failure of our water system, some of the highest energy prices in Europe and overpriced public transport. Meanwhile, the bankers crashed the economy while workers and communities paid with austerity. And as the pandemic led to profiteering at the top, it delivered wage stagnation for everyone else.

And now the cumulation of the decades-long neoliberal experiment is the debt crisis and handing over total control to the markets. Who will pay? Politics, as usual, has just one answer: the workers and everyday people.

This is no longer a question of shifting left or right. It’s a question of class. Of trying to unify the working class around a shared agenda: the economy. Building unity around a vision of hope for all our futures. Not pitting town against the city or north against south. But by delivering jobs, homes and services.

But if instead the real winner of the Labour leadership contest is a lack of vision driven by the bond markets then the party is finished.

My union votes on its affiliation to Labour in 2027. Labour policy tinkering will not cut it. And I say this to all candidates. Personality is not what’s on the ballot paper. For Unite, it’s the policies. Pure and simple. Transform or die.

So who will Unite support? The union’s ruling body has not met to decide that, in the event of an official leadership contest. When the time comes, our executive council will meet and the candidate whose policies best address the union’s analysis of the current crisis will get our backing.

What we can say now is this: it is crucial that all the key players the party has, including Andy Burnham, are in the race and an ordered timetable is in place to facilitate that.

Sharon Graham is the general secretary of the Unite union

Photograph by Guy Smallman/Getty Images