STEVE WRIGHT doesn’t name his pick for Labour leader — but is clear the party needs a fundamental change of direction.

“We don’t get to choose who’s on the ballot paper — though I think unions should be able to,” the Fire Brigades Union leader says. “I could say we want Andy Burnham or someone else but why tie ourselves down before we know who’s in the race?

“What I want to make sure of is that we get them in front of us so we can set clear demands.

“As the FBU we want someone who will deliver on fire services issues — pay and investment in public services to stop station closures and cuts — but what I’ve pushed [in discussions with other Labour-affiliated unions] is, let’s get agreed principles on what we want Labour to deliver on, firm commitments about what they’ll do for workers.

“It’s not about personalities, though it has been a bit of an issue that Keir Starmer doesn’t have one. There needs to be a complete departure from how the Labour Party has been run for the last few years.

“This faction at the top — [Morgan] McSweeney, [Peter] Mandelson and the rest — have had a stranglehold. I’ve spoken to MPs, some in quite senior roles, who say they don’t even know Keir Starmer, that he hasn’t spoken to them in the two years they’ve been MPs. The feeling is there’s a very small group that gets listened to.”

Wright says all wings of the party need a say in an open and democratic contest to succeed Starmer. Especially its affiliated unions. The FBU voted to remain affiliated at its conference this week, despite serious disquiet at the party’s conduct in office.

“We could have walked away and got a headline for a day or two, but it wouldn’t deliver for members or workers.”

Though Labour had forced some people out, most with a choice opted to stay and fight, he noted: “You didn’t see the mass exodus from the Labour Party to Your Party some people were predicting, certainly not from socialist MPs.”

In his address to conference the day before, he warned against the labour movement shifting its support to the Greens, arguing they have no record of engagement with trade unionism and that leader Zack Polanski supported the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition responsible for devastating cuts in the 2010s.

The Socialism26 agenda set out by some left MPs and trade union leaders, including Wright, set out immediate demands of the Labour Party including tax reform, nationalising water, action to bring down energy bills and stronger workers’ rights — but also an end to the anti-democratic attack on jury trials and protest rights, and recognition of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

“The basis for that” (in the Commons) “is broader than just the Socialist Campaign Group which is a good thing. A lot of new MPs are basically going to lose their jobs in three years, so that matters.” MPs previously loyal to the party’s direction under Starmer may change their minds.

Like a lot of trade unionists, Wright’s anger at a lot of what Labour has done doesn’t mean he sees no difference from the Tories.

The contrast between the last Tory government and this one is like “night and day,” he insists. The Tories would only take advice on fire services from the National Fire Chiefs Council, but Labour come to the FBU. “They come to us, civil servants come to us. We meet regularly.

“My firm view is that in those rooms we are making progress — on the role of a firefighter” (which is changing with climate chaos, extreme weather and a rise in non-fire incidents) “and on pay.”

The ministerial advisory group is also taking firefighters’ concerns over the decades-long deregulation of building safety seriously as it considers the lessons of Grenfell, he says.

There’s a big caveat to all this, which is the money. “We’ll be able in two or three years to fundamentally change what the fire and rescue service looks like — if we get the funding, which we’re not seeing at the moment.”

The FBU has put itself on an industrial footing to resist cuts, and has faced them down in Avon and Oxfordshire.

But reversing the huge cuts to fire brigades made under the Tories means changing the national picture when it comes to funding. “We’ve relied too heavily on local issues being local issues. It’s a national battle.

“What makes members angry is not just pay and conditions but their safety. A year ago today I attended the incident at Bicester Motion where we lost two of our comrades” (firefighters Martyn Sadler and Jennie Logan, who were killed as was a member of the public, Dave Chester). “One I’d known my whole career. They left the fire station in the fire engine, attended an incident and never came out.

“Firefighters know how dangerous the job is. They see it and they fear it because 14 years of austerity have led to the loss of one in five firefighters.

“When I joined 25 years ago, there were five firefighters on a fire engine all the time. Now it’s routinely four, sometimes even three.

“That puts us in danger and it puts the public in danger. Safety has been compromised by government decisions. Fire deaths are going up.”

Not only do the cuts need to stop — but the fire service needs investment to meet the worsening impacts of climate change.

“Firefighters are on the front line of the climate crisis. People talk about us attending less fires. But since 2015 when we were hitting 600-650,000 calls we attended that’s now up to nearly 800,000.

“More and more incidents. Floods and wildfires linked to climate, though other emerging problems like lithium-ion battery fires are on the rise.

“There’s no statutory duty in England for firefighters to even attend flooding incidents, so there’s no specific funding for it even though we’ve always done it.

“There were wildfires through all parts of the UK in 2022. In London a suburban street burnt to the ground last year” (in Rainham) “and we had wildfires in Dorset and Wiltshire. Seventeen fire services had to deploy to Dorset — you had firefighters from Liverpool attending.”

Climate denialism is another reason to fear a Reform government, and Wright is clear that if Labour doesn’t change Nigel Farage could well enter No 10. Reform councils are an even more immediate threat to firefighters.

“They will attack our pensions, our pay. Reform don’t stand for workers. They represent the billionaire class.

“We need to take that message to our members. Reform’s divisive and racist narratives are entering the workplace. We have a job to do talking to people, making sure they aren’t just flicking on GB News and swallowing that pill.”

The union is a core supporter of the Together alliance against the far right that brought half a million onto the streets in March.

“But we can’t outsource this. When it comes to going into a fire station and convincing members, the people that can do that are FBU reps and officials, people they work with, have sat on the back of a fire engine or in a control room with.”

It’s a message FBU officers have stressed throughout conference and at fringe meetings against racism and for Palestine: take arguments into your stations and communities.

With a tottering Labour government and an emboldened, racist right, with crumbling services and worsening living standards, there is no room for divorcing industrial militancy from political engagement. The FBU is fighting for Britain’s future on all fronts.