Pro-Starmer candidate ‘quietly confident’ of winning leadership of Labour’s biggest union

Gerard Coyne, who narrowly lost to Len McCluskey four years ago, says he won’t ‘play student politics’ with Labour funding

‘I’m not focusing my efforts on the leader of the Labour Party. That’s what Len [McCluskey] did’ (Gerard Coyne)

Gerard Coyne, the candidate who narrowly failed to beat Len McCluskey four years ago, is “quietly confident” of winning the leadership of Unite, Labour’s largest affiliated union.

Mr Coyne, who is Sir Keir Starmer’s favoured candidate in the election, told The Independent in an interview that he would maintain Labour funding and that he wouldn’t “purge” his opponents in the way that Mr McCluskey purged him.

Mr Coyne said he had “snippets of feedback” about the ballot, which closes on 23 August, in which he is competing against two candidates who are more critical of Sir Keir, Steve Turner, an assistant general secretary, and Sharon Graham, head of the union’s organising department.

Mr Coyne, who was defeated by a margin of 4 per cent last time, is expected to benefit from a split among Mr McCluskey’s supporters.

“I’m going to leave Keir alone to get on with turning the Labour Party back into a winning machine,” Mr Coyne said. “I want to see a Labour government. I believe our members do better under a Labour government. I’ve been a lifelong member of the Labour Party. So, of course I want to see that, but at the same time, it is for Keir to determine that which will bring the party back to being electable, and for me to get on with turning Unite into a force that will be to reckon with across society.”

Mr Coyne said he wanted a change from the McCluskey period, when the union backed Jeremy Corbyn. Mr McCluskey has endorsed Mr Turner, the candidate of the union’s United Left caucus. Mr Turner is widely regarded as the frontrunner, but his vote may be split by Ms Graham, who describes herself as a candidate of the “independent left”, and who has suggested Labour could not be certain of the union’s financial support, saying she favours “payment by results”.

Mr Coyne said: “I’m not going to play student politics with the funding of the Labour Party. They’ve got a hard enough job as it is, of pulling back from the worst electoral defeat since 1935. I’m not interested in the antics that some of my other colleagues who are standing in this election have entertained.”

However, he refused to say that he shared Sir Keir’s politics: “I’m not focusing my efforts on the leader of the Labour Party. That’s what Len did. My focus cannot be obsessing around it – I mean what I say about the need to grow our organisation. We are in terminal decline. We have been in terminal decline for too many years. And if there was ever a need, if there was ever a time for vibrant trade unions in this country in the private sector, it is now, as we emerge out of the pandemic, so I’m really not going to be spending my time analysing where I differ from Keir on one policy or another.”

We are in terminal decline. We have been in terminal decline for too many years. And if there was ever a need, if there was ever a time for vibrant trade unions in this country in the private sector, it is now, as we emerge out of the pandemic

Gerard Coyne

Nevertheless, a Coyne victory would be a boost for the Labour leader, giving him a larger majority on the party’s national executive and a better chance of winning votes at the annual conference as well as more secure finances.

Mr Coyne said that the ballot return figures so far suggested that turnout in this election is going to be around 12 per cent, the same as last time. “It’s disappointing. But then, when there’s no real engagement about this election from the union directly, it’s not surprising,” he said. “Participation in this election is woeful. It was woeful last time around. Sadly, in the past, this has served the interests of those that are already in power.”

He has promised to set up a democracy commission to look at all elements of the union’s internal democracy: “We’ve learned that it’s much easier to connect virtually than previously was the case. There is a huge opportunity for us to harness that technology and to engage in a different way.”

But this does not extend to supporting Mr Turner’s idea for the union to launch its own TV channel: “The focus on members’ money will be uppermost in my mind, and Unite TV does not represent value for money. It is not what our members want. It smacks of North Korea: the voice from the glorious leader. That is not something I want to be involved in, quite frankly. I don’t entertain those sorts of projects because that’s not what members are telling me that they’re worried about.”

Mr Coyne has accused the McCluskey leadership of wasting money on plans for a hotel and conference centre in Birmingham, the costs of which have escalated over years. The latest estimate of its costs is not known because the union’s annual financial returns are now “almost eight weeks late”, Mr Coyne said. “Maybe Howard Beckett, who’s in charge of finances currently, has spent too much time campaigning and not enough time bean counting.” Mr Beckett, another anti-Starmer candidate, dropped out of the election and endorsed Mr Turner.

Mr Coyne, who was the union’s West Midlands regional organiser until the last election, said that he had no intention “in the slightest” of purging Mr McCluskey’s supporters if he won: “I went through a purge after the last general secretary’s election. There were a lot of people that were involved in my campaign that were dismissed and all 14 organisers in the West Midlands were placed under a disciplinary investigation as soon as the ballot closed. So I understand what went on and the fear that people felt after the last election. That is not my desire at all.”