ONE of Scotland’s most senior trade unionists has resigned from Labour and called for his union to disaffiliate from the party.
It comes in the wake of Sir Keir Starmer’s sacking of shadow transport minister Sam Tarry for attending a rail workers’ picket line at London’s Euston train station on Wednesday.
The MP went against Starmer’s instructions to stay away from the strikes taking place across the UK.
In a letter to the party, Kevin Lindsay, Scotland organiser for train drivers’ union Aslef, said the sacking was “just a step too far” for him to continue his membership of the party.
He added that under Starmer’s leadership “the party is moving to the right and is becoming unrecognisable” from the one which he joined.
READ MORE: Rail strikers removed from Glasgow Central station by police amid noisy protest
Despite praise for Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who has been seen on RMT picket lines, Lindsay wrote after the incident: “The Labour Party was and is meant to be the political wing of the trade union movement but now it’s more interested in trying to woo Tory voters in the shires of England than representing working people.
“As a democrat, I respect that Keir Starmer has been elected the leader but I truly believe his performance and policies are making it impossible for the Labour Party to return to power and that he should be removed from his position immediately.
“There needs to be a change in leadership and political direction but I sadly can’t see this happening and we will end up with PM [Liz] Truss for several years.
“Therefore I have made the decision not only to resign from the Labour Party but now also support the proposal for Aslef to disaffiliate from the Party.”
A Labour spokesperson said the party will “always stand up for working people”.
“This isn’t about appearing on a picket line,” they said. “Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
“As a government in waiting, any breach of collective responsibility is taken extremely seriously and for these reasons Sam Tarry has been removed from the frontbench.”
Before his sacking, Tarry said: “I’ve no idea what Keir will decide to do but I know this, if Keir was in government right now, this dispute wouldn’t be happening.”
Asked about Tarry’s [below] sacking, Starmer repeated the party line during a visit to Birmingham. He said: “Sam Tarry was sacked because he booked himself onto media programmes without permission, and then made up policy on the hoof, and that can’t be tolerated in any organisation because we’ve got collective responsibility.
The National: Sam Tarry was sacked for joining a picket line where rail workers were striking
Sam Tarry was sacked for joining a picket line where rail workers were striking
READ MORE: British Gas owner Centrica and Shell report billions in profits
“So that was relatively straightforward.
“Of course, as far as the industrial action is concerned, I completely understand the frustration of so many working people who’ve seen the prices go up, seen inflation through the roof, and their wages haven’t gone up.
“So the Labour Party will always be on the side of working people, but we need collective responsibility, as any organisation does.”
RMT’s Scotland organiser Gordon Martin said that the way negotiations were going, it is looking likely that there will be further pickets on August 18 and 20.
By Adam Robertson
probably the most accurate thing i’ve heard in several weeks, its like a SNP relay race, the NATS have their critics in Scotland, but Bojo kept them on top, people thought things would change but Starmer is just as big a tory arsehole as Johnson who’s passed the baton to him, and Truss will probably be Thatcher 2022 and Kier will give it to her in 6 weeks or so.
Honestly this is such an own goal for Kier Starmer, he could have pulled him to the side and said don’t promise things but he decided to do what he did and its really showing how absolutely awful Kier Starmer is for the workers. Kier Starmer has still yet to come out in support of the strikes.
unions need to start defunding labour. make the party go bankrupt. labour is now an anti-worker party.
Okay, bye then, nobody will miss you ya crank.
Winning over Tory voters in England is exactly what he needs to do to win an election.
[removed]
Whilst I appreciate your reply, you are fundamentally debating that everybody with a title can be trusted. I’m saying only a fool or someone just wanting to argue for the sake of it would attempt that.
I respect your decision to trust those above you and good luck to you.
Agree with them completely.
I think labour is going to completely capitulate.
There is one constant in life: as the Tories get weaker, Labour members will fail to unite together but will instead fight each other in order to keep the Tories in power longer. Sigh.
Lots of attacks on Labour in UK subs at the moment. Any chance it’s all tied in with a 13 point lead and major Tory infighting? Dead cat season.
I’d say that was a pretty accurate assessment of the Labour leader and shadow chancellor yes.
12 comments
ONE of Scotland’s most senior trade unionists has resigned from Labour and called for his union to disaffiliate from the party.
It comes in the wake of Sir Keir Starmer’s sacking of shadow transport minister Sam Tarry for attending a rail workers’ picket line at London’s Euston train station on Wednesday.
The MP went against Starmer’s instructions to stay away from the strikes taking place across the UK.
In a letter to the party, Kevin Lindsay, Scotland organiser for train drivers’ union Aslef, said the sacking was “just a step too far” for him to continue his membership of the party.
He added that under Starmer’s leadership “the party is moving to the right and is becoming unrecognisable” from the one which he joined.
READ MORE: Rail strikers removed from Glasgow Central station by police amid noisy protest
Despite praise for Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who has been seen on RMT picket lines, Lindsay wrote after the incident: “The Labour Party was and is meant to be the political wing of the trade union movement but now it’s more interested in trying to woo Tory voters in the shires of England than representing working people.
“As a democrat, I respect that Keir Starmer has been elected the leader but I truly believe his performance and policies are making it impossible for the Labour Party to return to power and that he should be removed from his position immediately.
“There needs to be a change in leadership and political direction but I sadly can’t see this happening and we will end up with PM [Liz] Truss for several years.
“Therefore I have made the decision not only to resign from the Labour Party but now also support the proposal for Aslef to disaffiliate from the Party.”
A Labour spokesperson said the party will “always stand up for working people”.
“This isn’t about appearing on a picket line,” they said. “Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
“As a government in waiting, any breach of collective responsibility is taken extremely seriously and for these reasons Sam Tarry has been removed from the frontbench.”
Before his sacking, Tarry said: “I’ve no idea what Keir will decide to do but I know this, if Keir was in government right now, this dispute wouldn’t be happening.”
Asked about Tarry’s [below] sacking, Starmer repeated the party line during a visit to Birmingham. He said: “Sam Tarry was sacked because he booked himself onto media programmes without permission, and then made up policy on the hoof, and that can’t be tolerated in any organisation because we’ve got collective responsibility.
The National: Sam Tarry was sacked for joining a picket line where rail workers were striking
Sam Tarry was sacked for joining a picket line where rail workers were striking
READ MORE: British Gas owner Centrica and Shell report billions in profits
“So that was relatively straightforward.
“Of course, as far as the industrial action is concerned, I completely understand the frustration of so many working people who’ve seen the prices go up, seen inflation through the roof, and their wages haven’t gone up.
“So the Labour Party will always be on the side of working people, but we need collective responsibility, as any organisation does.”
RMT’s Scotland organiser Gordon Martin said that the way negotiations were going, it is looking likely that there will be further pickets on August 18 and 20.
By Adam Robertson
probably the most accurate thing i’ve heard in several weeks, its like a SNP relay race, the NATS have their critics in Scotland, but Bojo kept them on top, people thought things would change but Starmer is just as big a tory arsehole as Johnson who’s passed the baton to him, and Truss will probably be Thatcher 2022 and Kier will give it to her in 6 weeks or so.
Honestly this is such an own goal for Kier Starmer, he could have pulled him to the side and said don’t promise things but he decided to do what he did and its really showing how absolutely awful Kier Starmer is for the workers. Kier Starmer has still yet to come out in support of the strikes.
unions need to start defunding labour. make the party go bankrupt. labour is now an anti-worker party.
Okay, bye then, nobody will miss you ya crank.
Winning over Tory voters in England is exactly what he needs to do to win an election.
[removed]
Whilst I appreciate your reply, you are fundamentally debating that everybody with a title can be trusted. I’m saying only a fool or someone just wanting to argue for the sake of it would attempt that.
I respect your decision to trust those above you and good luck to you.
Agree with them completely.
I think labour is going to completely capitulate.
There is one constant in life: as the Tories get weaker, Labour members will fail to unite together but will instead fight each other in order to keep the Tories in power longer. Sigh.
Lots of attacks on Labour in UK subs at the moment. Any chance it’s all tied in with a 13 point lead and major Tory infighting? Dead cat season.
I’d say that was a pretty accurate assessment of the Labour leader and shadow chancellor yes.