THE Fire Brigades Union voted to remain affiliated to Labour after a heated debate at its conference in Coventry today.

General secretary Steve Wright said he shared members’ anger at the current government.

“Starmer is not fit to lead the Labour Party and he is not fit to be prime minister,” he said. “Starmer must go.”

But it would be folly to walk away just as a chance to shape a new direction for the party was emerging, he cautioned: “We stay where workers’ voices can still shape the future of this party.”

Through engagement, opposing bad policies and fighting for FBU members the union had won commitments on flooding, national standards, the lessons of the Grenfell Tower blaze and employment rights, he stressed.

A motion from Merseyside, calling for the union to hold an all-member ballot on continued affiliation, fell.

Moving it, Lee Hunter said Labour had imposed “station closures and the loss of firefighter roles locally and nationally” and the government “continued to provide weapons to Israel for their genocidal attacks on Palestine.

“Starmer may be the current leader of the Labour Party, but the rot within the party doesn’t stop at him. The vast majority of that party are compliant in the decisions and direction that Labour have taken.”

Multiple speakers said Labour MPs and authorities were accessible to the union in a way the Tories had not been. Luke Fowler of Oxfordshire said local MPs had backed the campaign to stop fire service cuts in the county, while Hayleigh Marks Talabis of Northamptonshire said she had had more meetings with MPs in the last 12 months than in all the years of Tory government, where she was able to put members’ concerns to them.

Mr Wright also took aim at claims the Greens were able to replace Labour on the left.

“Yes, the Greens have grown. But they are not a working-class party. They do not have structures for trade union representation in the way Labour does.”

Green authorities had failed workers as in Brighton while Green leader Zack Polanski had supported the Liberal Democrats in a coalition government imposing austerity and cutting 12,000 firefighters’ jobs, he said, warning members to be suspicious of “a man with no history in the labour movement, in our struggles or with this union.

“Conference, we should not tie the political future of this union to political fashion, careerism or personalities,” he urged.

Labour’s next leader must “break with austerity,” Mr Wright concluded after the vote.

“The Fire Brigades Union will be a strong and influential voice in choosing the next Labour leader.

“Under my leadership the FBU, as a Labour-affiliated union, will fight for a government that truly represents the working class.”