Unison general secretary Andrea Egan (Photography By Dinendra Haria)
4 min read
Keir Starmer critic Andrea Egan has won the race to be general secretary of Unison, Britain’s biggest trade union and a key Labour Party affiliate, in a fresh blow to No 10.
In a vote of Unison members, Egan defeated incumbent Christina McAnea by 60 per cent to 40 per cent, it was announced on Wednesday morning. She will begin her five-year term in January.
Turnout in the internal election was just seven per cent, with 98,251 ballots being cast in total. There were 1,404,684 eligible voters.
Egan said her victory means “ordinary UNISON members are at long last taking charge of our union”.
“We will put faith in members’ decisions and stand up to any employer, politician or cabinet minister who acts against our interests. Together, we will turn UNISON into the remarkable force for change it should be. That journey has begun today,” she said.
Reacting to the result, Prime Minister Starmer said: “Congratulations to Andrea Egan on her election as general secretary of UNISON. I look forward to working with her.
“A huge thank you to Christina McAnea for her outstanding contribution to the Labour and trade union movement. She played an important role in securing the landmark Employment Rights Bill, and her work has ensured this Labour government will bring in a fair pay agreement to boost the wages of social care workers.”
Elected president of Unison in 2022, Egan promised in her campaign to usher in a more active industrial strategy, doing away with any “nervousness” when running national ballots for strike action.
McAnea, who became general secretary in 2021, was seen as closer to the Prime Minister and one of his most reliable allies in the trade union movement, though she had been more critical of the Labour government in recent weeks.
The challenger, from Bolton, first worked in children’s homes and later qualified as a social worker before becoming a full-time union representative. She is not a member of the Labour Party after being expelled under Starmer’s leadership for sharing articles from the Marxist group Socialist Appeal.
Although her victory is the first time a lay member of the union – rather than a paid official – has become Unison general secretary, she had told The House magazine in November that she was “very confident” of winning the closely fought internal election.
Egan is highly critical of the Labour government and has pledged to review Unison’s relationship with the Labour Party, which could include the many millions of pounds it donates.
Egan told The House that the Labour government had “done very little for working people” since being elected last year, adding that she would favour Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham for the Labour leadership.
Her Unison leadership bid was backed by Labour left MP John McDonnell and Your Party’s Jeremy Corbyn, and in her interview with The House, she expressed enthusiasm about the new left-wing party set up by Corbyn.
Your Party welcomed her win on Wednesday. A spokesperson said: “We warmly congratulate Andrea Egan on her election as UNISON general secretary.
“Andrea’s victory on an anti-austerity ticket shows that working-class people won’t take more cuts and more decline. UNISON members have said No to Starmer’s crumbs off the table, no to chronic low pay, no to underfunding and no to privatisation. It really is time for real change.”
Commenting on her victory, a left-wing union source told PoliticsHome: “The Labour right are always on borrowed time because no matter how much they might wish to, they cannot eradicate democracy in the labour movement.
“This is the most devastating defeat for the nasty apparatchiks in Downing Street and in exile at private lobbyist firms since Jeremy Corbyn’s victory in 2015.”
A spokesperson for Mainstream, the new Labour group with links to Burnham, said: “This result shows clearly that vast swathes of Labour’s historic coalition feel the government has fallen out of step with its mainstream.”
Momentum, the left-wing group set up to support the former Labour leadership of Corbyn, said Egan’s victory represented the “biggest step forward for the left in the labour movement for years”.
To reinforce her status as the rank-and-file candidate, Egan pledged during the contest to take only the wage of a social worker, not the total salary package of £181,000 to which the union’s head is entitled.
The battle between the two women was acrimonious, particularly after Egan launched her campaign while McAnea was on bereavement leave after her husband Robert died. “She launched a campaign within days of his funeral, while I was on bereavement leave, with a video that said, ‘Where’s our general secretary?’ We haven’t seen her’. It’s shocking,” McAnea said.
Egan defended the move by explaining that, as the lesser-known candidate, she could not afford to delay, while also alleging that “personal attacks” against her during the campaign had been “a bit below the belt”.
