Overview

• Unite delegates voted overwhelmingly to suspend Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner for “bringing the union into disrepute” in its handling of the Birmingham bin dispute.
• General secretary Sharon Graham accused Rayner of backing a “rogue council” instead of defending workers facing pay cuts and vowed to follow up with a formal expulsion process.
• The union approved a motion to re-examine its affiliation with the Labour Party, warning it could withhold more than £1.2 million in annual affiliation fees and MP donations.
• Delegates condemned Birmingham City Council’s alleged fire-and-rehire tactics, which threaten pay cuts of up to £8,000, and suspended council leader John Cotton and other Labour figures from Unite.
• The ongoing bin workers’ strike, now in its fifth month, has left household waste uncollected and intensified political strains for Keir Starmer’s government.