Unite gives conditional nomination for Andy Burnham as Labour leader

Today, 9 July 2026 the Unite executive council met to decide on its position regarding support for a new Labour Party leader.

Prior to the meeting Unite general secretary Sharon Graham met with Labour leadership candidate Andy Burnham in one-to-one and collective TULO meetings to discuss key priorities for Unite members.

It is imperative that the next Labour prime minister must lead a government that fights for workers and communities, deals with the crippling cost of living crisis and has a properly financed industrial strategy, focused on jobs.

The 2008 financial crash was a disaster caused by greed, followed by 10 years of austerity. Jobs, homes, pay, services were all lost. We then had the Covid pandemic and many workers paid with their lives. The working class has paid for crisis after crisis and this must stop.

Put simply, Labour has failed workers and communities. This failure to deliver on real change has been key in the rise of Reform. Labour will get one shot to deliver. They need to show workers and communities whose side they are on. Failure to do so would lead to them becoming once again irrelevant and in danger of extinction.

There now needs to be short and long term actions taken that can be seen and felt. There are key areas that need to be addressed such as:

• The development and implementation of an ambitious industrial strategy to deliver good well-paid jobs and reindustrialise Britain.
• Reversing public sector austerity by paying for more day-to-day spending with a wealth tax.
• Putting a stop to the “rob Peter to pay Paul” approach, pitting worker against worker, and loosening the investment fiscal rule to allow more direct investment in jobs and growth.
• Unfreezing the grossly unfairly frozen tax thresholds that are pulling workers and pensioners into unsustainable tax bands.
• Taking back into public ownership our energy and water infrastructure, to cut bills and stop profiteering.
• Changing procurement rules to “buy British” to support UK jobs and deepen national security.
• Delivering net zero through a real workers’ transition, creating commensurate well-paid jobs. Never again allowing the industrial vandalism and short sightedness that happened with the Grangemouth and Lindsey oil refinery closures.

It is on this basis that the executive council has endorsed Andy Burnham, conditional upon delivery.

The Unite general secretary and the executive council expect Andy Burnham to become the next prime minister and will keep their position of support under review.

Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham said: “Labour now needs to deliver. This moment feels like the ‘last chance saloon’.

“If warm words are not followed up by action, workers and communities prepared to listen now - will walk away.

“Everyday people are hurting. They are on their knees. The working class of Britain have paid the price for crisis after crisis, Labour now need to clearly show whose side they are on.

“Britain needs a vision, a clear step-change in industrial and political direction. A ‘real Labour’ direction that must lead to well-paid, secure jobs and a society where everyone gets a decent piece of the pie. 

“Labour will get one shot – they now need to take it.”

ENDS