Unite cuts Labour funding amid frustration with ‘centrist’ Keir Starmer

Keir Starmer speaks to the media after a visit to an NHS project in London.

(Image credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

last updated 7 October 2020

Unite has voted to reduce its funding to Labour as the union’s boss Len McCluskey warns Keir Starmer that moving Labour too far from the left may result in a further withdrawal of support.

At a meeting last night, the Unite executive agreed to cut its affiliation money to the Labour Party by about 10%, amid “anger in the union about Labour’s direction” under Starmer, the BBC reports.

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Joe Evans is the world news editor at TheWeek.co.uk. He joined the team in 2019 and held roles including deputy news editor and acting news editor before moving into his current position in early 2021. He is a regular panellist on The Week Unwrapped podcast, discussing politics and foreign affairs.

Before joining The Week, he worked as a freelance journalist covering the UK and Ireland for German newspapers and magazines. A series of features on Brexit and the Irish border got him nominated for the Hostwriter Prize in 2019. Prior to settling down in London, he lived and worked in Cambodia, where he ran communications for a non-governmental organisation and worked as a journalist covering Southeast Asia. He has a masterâ€™s degree in journalism from City, University of London, and before that studied English Literature at the University of Manchester.

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