Streeting's Sharon Scheme: NHS workers demand answers!
Unite reps are demanding answers from Sharon Graham as accusations surface claiming Graham has "colluded" with Wes Streeting in order to support his jockeying for position in the incoming Burnham government.
Reunite understands from multiple sources, both inside and beyond the union, that Wes Streeting's team have openly claimed to have worked with Graham to write her recent attack lines deployed in The Times and elsewhere, in which Graham called Ed Milliband “a noose around the neck" of job creation.
The intention of this hit piece was to dissuade incoming Prime Minster Andy Burnham from making Milliband Chancellor. In doing so this bolstered the position of Wes Streeting.
Sharon Graham stood in 2021 on a promise of no longer playing Westminster games with Labour factions. An intervention of this sort would put Unite squarely in the middle of a political power play of the Labour Right.
It is well known within Unite that all political contact with Ministers and senior government figures is conducted through the General Secretary's office. This makes Graham's political interventions completely unaccountable to members, with scant information reported to the Executive Council after the event. This has led to a wild veering of our union's political approach, from authorising 'secret talks' with Reform in Birmingham to now allegedly being used by the Labour Right for Westminster games.
Unite reps are demanding answers.
Graham must explain to members in our health sector what, if any, contact her and her team have had with Streeting and his people.
A senior NHS rep told Reunite: "I'm outraged that Sharon appears to be backing West Streeting or has allowed our union to be used by his team for their own manoeuvring. Wes Streeting has been no friend of the NHS and should have no place in the leadership of the Labour party."
As Health Secretary Streeting faced protests from Unite members in the NHS, most recently striking Queen’s Hospital members in March. He is seen as a proponent of further privatisation and supports companies including Palantir winning NHS contracts.
Major branches of the union have starting passing motions condemning Graham's intervention, which is seen as not only indirectly supporting the Labour Right but also bolstering right-wing arguments against action on climate change.
It's time to end the secrecy.
It's time to end our union's drift to the right.
It's time to Reunite.
