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Sharon Graham the general secretary of Unite, delivers a speech during the Labour Party Conference at the ACC Liverpool, September 29, 2025
LABOUR must change course and defend the interests of workers in 2026 or it risks “sowing the seeds of its own destruction,” the party’s main union backer has said.
Unite leader Sharon Graham told Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government to “stop being embarrassed of being the voice of workers” and to change course before it’s too late.
Ms Graham accused Labour of being too concerned with “failing leadership” and finding who could potentially replace Sir Keir in an open letter published in The Times.
“For too long it has been everyday people, workers and communities who have paid the price for crisis after crisis not of their making,” she said.
“In 2026 this must stop. The government needs to decide what it stands for and who it stands for. If we have to ask, it is not working.
“The party faithful can agonise about its failing leadership and a ‘night of the long knives’. But a new Labour leadership with the same policies simply won’t cut it. The doom loop cannot be broken with more austerity lite, no matter who is in Downing Street.
“Britain needs vision. We led the first Industrial Revolution and we are nowhere in the fourth. Rudderless.”
Ms Graham called the debate surrounding who might replace Sir Keir “inevitable” but warned that the next prime minister will face the same problems unless they undertake a shift in policy.
“Unite was the only affiliated union that did not endorse the manifesto, as it did not back jobs,” she said. “We fought back on the winter fuel allowance cut and the self-harm of net zero targets that came without the needed investment in new industries.
“Trade unions are there to fight for workers, not to side with politicians.
“In the recent Budget, Labour opting for stealth taxes on workers instead of a wealth tax on the mega-rich was the wrong choice.
“Labour must stop being embarrassed to be the voice of workers. Workers are fed up with carrying the can.
“In the coming year, if this government does not depart from its current path, it will surely be sowing the seeds of its own destruction.”
