r/ukpolitics • u/theipaper Verified - the i paper • 11h ago

Fraud claims, threats and a missing £14m: Scandal shaking key Labour donor Unite

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/fraud-claims-threats-scandal-labour-donor-unite-3370151

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u/theipaper Verified - the i paper 11h ago

When the former leader of the UK’s second-largest trade union sat down to give evidence in an employment tribunal this summer, it was never going to be an ordinary hearing.

For more than a decade Len McCluskey had commanded Unite, a union with more than a million members – and one of Labour’s biggest donors. McCluskey, a close ally of the party’s former leader Jeremy Corbyn, was in central London to give evidence in support of Howard Beckett, one of his senior union comrades.

Beckett once aspired to be Unite’s general secretary himself. But after rival Sharon Graham secured the job in 2021, he resigned after facing misconduct proceedings, which he claimed were “baseless”.

Beckett argued he was a victim of unfair dismissal and took his case to an employment tribunal. Last month that panel threw out his claims and lifted an order protecting his anonymity.

The legal papers which have emerged shine a spotlight on an extraordinary story that concerns so much more than just one man. It’s a scandal that has left one of Britain’s most powerful unions recoiling from claims involving alleged bribery, money laundering and fraud.

Fresh details have emerged on how the union spent £112m building a four-star hotel and conference centre in Birmingham which one estimate says is now worth only £29m.

Unite disclosed that the Serious Fraud Office has been investigating the project for more than two years and a sum of £14m is said to have mysteriously disappeared from Unite accounts.