Labour should “talk about what they can do to change Britain”, the leader of the UK’s second largest trade union has said. Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, said the union could reduce the amount of money it gave to Labour if the party’s leadership did not back more of its policy priorities, saying “people want something to vote for”. Graham also warned Sir Keir Starmer there would be “no blank cheques” as she urged the party to be “bolder” in an interview with the BBC.
She told the broadcaster: “I want to see some movement if we are going to give what we usually give. We would be better off with a Labour government but I am very, very disappointed with the lack of ambition.” Unite is Labour’s biggest financial backer and guarantees the party almost £1.5m a year. Graham made the comments after members of her union, the UK’s second largest, voted overwhelmingly against disaffiliation from the party earlier this week. Graham said she was disappointed by the “lack of ambition” at the top of the party. Apathy will be the winner at the ballot box next year if Labour does not become bolder, she added. She said the opposition was not setting out a distinct alternative to the Tory government as it tries to reassure voters it can manage the economy. She said: “We need to be as bold as the 1945 Labour government”, which created the NHS. She added: “There wasn’t much money about then, I can tell you.” Graham told the BBC that strict fiscal rules have resulted in “inertia” which has led the public to question the differences between Labour and the Conservatives. She added: “If Labour are saying what’s happening now is awful – and it is absolutely awful – they have to come out with solutions to that.” Graham wants hundreds of organisers to go to marginal seats and talk to voters about the case for taking key industries such as energy and steel into public hands. The message will be reinforced by Unite-funded billboards. The aim is for voters to press local Labour parties and candidates to commit to backing nationalisation. She told the BBC: “We will take our ideas to the people. “The real decision-makers are the voters. If they push those ideas, politicians tend to move when they speak to voters. “People will say they remember when energy companies were privatised and when they paid massive bills, and it was a Labour government that stopped all that.”