UNITE will forge an “authentic voice for the working class” if it votes to disaffiliate from Labour for attacking striking Birmingham bin workers, general secretary Sharon Graham has told the 139th Durham Miners’ Gala.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s name was booed by the crowd as Ms Graham chanted “shame on you” over her handling of the long-running strikes, as former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said that he agreed with her “absolutely.”

Delegates at Labour’s biggest union backer voted to rethink their relationship with the party and suspend Ms Rayner at their policy conference last week.

Addressing thousands who attended the annual march on Saturday, Ms Graham said that delegates had “decided enough is enough” and added: “If we leave we will forge a new vehicle for our class.

“A strong independent workers union: a union that follows its own path.

“An authentic voice for the working class of the working class and friends, most of all, a union that understands that left politics without industrial organisation is a cause without a class.”

Unite members walked out in January over plans to downgrade roles and cut refuse workers’ pay by up to £8,000, and an all-out strike was announced in March.

Talks brokered by conciliation service Acas broke down last week after the Labour-run council’s leader John Cotton said that it had “reached the absolute limit of what we can offer,” leaving bin lorry drivers at risk of compulsory redundancy.

Ms Graham said: “Those men and women taking part and taking on not just their council but also government-backed commissioners who are blocking the deal for these workers.”

Boos sounded as she continued: “Angela Rayner missing in action: she visits the leader of the council and scab agency workers but not one single word to the workers on the picket line. Shame on you.”

Crowd members chanted “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn” as the independent MP took to the gala platform and said: “The way in which the commissioners in Birmingham are deciding they want to cut the wages of bin workers — I agree with what Sharon said absolutely, and what Unite is doing for the fight for the Birmingham bin workers.

“I think we all know that the Birmingham bin workers’ victory — and it will be a victory and it will come — will be a warning sign that the next local authority under government pressure that decides it wants to lower wages is going to have a fight coming to it, so get behind this struggle now to ensure it doesn't happen elsewhere to others.”

The Unite conference also called for the recognition of the state of Palestine and vowed to support “worker-led campaigns to boycott the handling of Israeli goods and services in their workplaces and campaigns for divestment from Israeli companies in their workplaces and the wider economy.”

Mr Corbyn hailed the decision as “historically important because we will stop the supply of weapons to the Israeli Defence Forces to kill people in Gaza.”

He announced that his independent alliance of MPs would hold a two-day inquiry of its own in September “into policies on Gaza and the sale to Israel of arms.”

A Labour source has said that Ms Rayner quit Unite in April, with a party spokesperson adding that the government was responsible for the “biggest upgrade in workers’ rights in a generation.”

Following attacks from Durham Reform councillors over not being invited to the gala’s platform, Durham Miners’ Association chairman Stephen Guy told the Morning Star that the local Labour MP and Israel supporter Luke Akehurst wasn’t invited either.

“The message is the same, whether you are Labour or Reform, if you don’t share our values or beliefs you don’t get an invite. We have Labour MPs here today on the platform and they’ve been selected because they share our values,” he said.