Labour peer welcomes GMB union’s intervention on net zero

Labour peer Baroness Hayter has warned that some union leaders are “out of touch” with their members.

Speaking to GB News, Baroness Hayter said: “I’m a GMB member, so I’m really pleased to see my old union that I used to work for on this.

“I think what’s really important, I don’t want to get all into the green agenda and all that, but you know, Labour is strongest when it listens to its trade union members.

“Because they are the eyes and ears, if you like, of what’s happening, not just actually in the workforce, but actually in communities. They’re embedded in their communities.

“I think that if we stop listening to trade unionists, then actually the party is the weaker for it.

“I’m going to really be unpopular now. It’s not just the elite in Westminster, but some trade union leaders have got quite out of touch with their union members.

“One of the dreadful things [Margaret Thatcher] did was not so much making sure that we had to elect a general secretary, but that we had to re-elect a general secretary every five years.

“And the push, therefore, is for that general secretary to be campaigning all the time. And the way you get on television, on the whole, is to be more left wing, because it’s a story.

“I really regret that, because actually, what you need as a general secretary is a long-term person who thinks about the long-term interests of their members.”