Iain Dalton, Leeds Socialist Party
Left-wing Labour MP for Leeds East, Richard Burgon, was the guest speaker at Leeds Trades Union Council’s annual general meeting.
The MP only had the Labour whip restored a month ago. He was suspended for six months for voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap, against Keir Starmer’s Labour government.
He also voted against the cuts to winter fuel allowance, two issues where trade unions are clearly at odds with Starmer’s Labour. He also said it’s likely the government will attempt to water down the employment rights (and trade union) bill currently going through parliament, a process which he said he is resisting, working together with other left MPs.
Richard Burgon stated that he saw himself as an MP who is a voice of trade unionists in Leeds, and that he would raise issues that union branches brought to him in parliament. In the discussion, Socialist Party members raised how that could be formalised, with regular parliamentary reports from Burgon, as well as Burgon agreeing to raise issues sent to him by Leeds Trades Union Council.
The meeting also agreed a motion to support the Nigeria Solidarity UK campaign against the repression of the #EndBadGovernance protesters, with activists still facing the death penalty under treason charges. Delegates remarked at the shock of the Nigerian Labour Congress President being stopped by the government from addressing the British Trades Union Congress (TUC) last summer.
