Sir Keir Starmer defended his decision to sack a Labour frontbencher who joined striking railworkers – and warned the leftwing MP’s allies it was a ‘straightforward decision’.
Labour is embroiled in a bitter row with unions today over the dismissal of Sam Tarry, the partner of the party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner, as a shadow transport minister.
The Ilford South MP and former union official turned up at London’s Euston station on Wednesday morning ‘in solidarity’ with the 40,000 RMT members who caused chaos for millions yesterday by shutting down at least half of Britain’s rail network.
Sir Keir has previously warned that to appear suitable to form a government senior MPs should distance themselves from protests, while supporting the right to strike.
It comes amid union plans for a summer of discontent that will see trains halted repeatedly over the coming months.
Amid Union fury and support for Tarry from Corbynista backbenchers, Mr Starmer – who is in Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games – said: ‘Sam Tarry was sacked because he booked himself onto media programmes without permission, and then made up policy on the hoof, and that can’t be tolerated in any organisation because we’ve got collective responsibility.
‘So that was relatively straightforward. Of course, as far as the industrial action is concerned, I completely understand the frustration of so many working people who’ve seen the prices go up, seen inflation through the roof, and their wages haven’t gone up.
‘So the Labour Party will always be on the side of working people, but we need collective responsibility, as any organisation does.’
Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) general secretary Manuel Cortes, RMT boss Mick Lynch and Unite general secretary Sharon Graham criticised the sacking, with the latter branding it a ‘juvenile attack’.
Meanwhile, former Labour deputy prime minister John Prescott – now a Labour peer – tweeted a photo of himself addressing striking miners when he was shadow transport secretary in 1984 in apparent support of Mr Tarry.
Sir Keir has previously warned that to appear suitable to form a government senior MPs should distance themselves from protests, while supporting the right to strike.
Sam Tarry, the partner of the party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner, was fired as a shadow transport minister last night for a ‘breach of collective responsibility’ after he joined workers in London.
The Ilford South MP turned up at London’s Euston station ‘in solidarity’ with the 40,000 RMT members who caused chaos for millions yesterday by shutting down at least half of Britain’s rail network today.
Former Labour deputy prime minister John Prescott – now a Labour peer – tweeted a photo of himself addressing striking miners when he was shadow transport secretary in 1984 in apparent support of Mr Tarry.
MP for York Central, Rachael Maskell, called for the Labour leader to visit picket lines last night – which he did not do – while GMB general secretary Gary Smith said it was a ‘huge own goal’ for Labour to ‘turn a Tory Transport crisis into a Labour story’.
Mr Tarry said he was ‘proud’ to stand with striking rail workers. In a statement he said: ‘This dispute would not be taking place under a Labour government, which would ensure that rail workers receive a fair wage.
‘It has been a privilege to serve on Labour’s frontbench for the past two years and to have had the opportunity to speak up for hard-pressed workers who deserve so much better than the treatment they’ve received from this corrupt and out-of-touch Government.
‘I remain committed to supporting the striking rail workers, and campaigning for a Labour victory at the next general election, which I will fight for relentlessly from the backbenches.’
A number of backbench Labour MPs also joined picket lines, including Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne, Brent Central MP Dawn Butler, Birmingham Hall Green MP Tahir Ali, Gateshead MP Ian Mearns and South Shields MP Emma Lewell-Buck.
Some hard Left Labour MPs also jumped to his defence. Ian Lavery, MP for Wansbeck, tweeted: ‘Solidarity to Sam Tarry. Supporting workers at RMT and all other workers in dispute is in the best traditions of what Labour was founded for and should stand for. The sacking is quite frankly shameful.’
Kate Osamor, MP for Edmonton, added: ‘Solidarity Sam Tarry. The Labour Party exists to fight for ordinary people. We must never lose sight of that.’
Rebecca Long-Bailey, MP for Salford & Eccles, said: ‘Solidarity supporting workers as they fight for their jobs, pay and conditions is exactly what Labour is supposed to do.
‘Trade unions formed to become the political voice of workers and to fight for a decent standard of life for all.’
Mr Tarry is a former TSSA union official. He is in a relationship with Ms Rayner, 41, having become close to after he ran her campaign to become Labour’s deputy leader.
She separated from her husband Mark in 2020 and Mr Tarry, a father of two, has also parted from his wife.
Mr Tarry faces a battle to hold on to his London seat after local party members voted to hold an open reselection process ahead of the next general election, meaning a different candidate could be chosen to fight it.
Ilford South is one of the safest Labour seats in the country and he has a 24,000 vote majority.
But sources told the Guardian yesterday that cosying up to union bosses could help Tarry win selection for a seat elsewhere, in a constituency the left of the party has more control over.
Ms Graham, who took over the superunion Unite last year, said: ‘Juvenile attacks on trade unionists will do absolutely nothing to further Labour’s prospects for power.’
Ms Graham, who took over the superunion Unite last year, said: ‘The Labour sacking of Sam Tarry for supporting working people on strike, against cuts to their jobs and pay, is another insult to the trade union movement. Quite frankly, it would be laughable if it were not so serious.
‘At a time when people are facing a cost of living crisis, and on the day when the Conservative Government has launched a new wave of attacks on the rights of working people, the Labour Party has opted to continue to indulge in old factional wars.
‘Labour is becoming more and more irrelevant to ordinary working people who are suffering. Juvenile attacks on trade unionists will do absolutely nothing to further Labour’s prospects for power.’
But a party spokeswoman said: ‘Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility.
‘That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
‘As a government-in-waiting, any breach of collective responsibility is taken extremely seriously and for these reasons Sam Tarry has been removed from the frontbench.’
The vicar’s son turned ‘golden boy of the British hard left’
The Labour shadow transport minister sacked after appearing on a picket line was nicknamed the ‘golden boy of the British hard Left’ and dates deputy party leader Angela Rayner, Tom Witherow writes.
Sam Tarry, who had joined workers at Euston station in London, is already fighting a battle to remain as Labour candidate in his Ilford South constituency in east London.
The father-of-two – the eldest son of a Church of England vicar – is an ardent Left-winger who won selection in his home seat in 2019 after a campaign run by union GMB and grassroots movement Momentum.
He won selection after moderate MP Mike Gapes stood down after 27 years.
The father-of-two – the eldest son of a Church of England vicar – is an ardent Left-winger who won selection in his home seat in 2019 after a campaign run by union GMB and grassroots movement Momentum.
Miss Rayner, 42, separated from her husband Mark (pictured) in 2020 and was first seen with Mr Tarry, who had also parted from his wife, in January this year.
Mr Tarry’s first formal post in politics was as chairman of youth wing Young Labour. The 39-year-old also served as a councillor in east London’s Barking and Dagenham from 2010 to 2018, where he was cleared of electoral fraud after being accused of spending most of his time living in Brighton at a £550,000 house jointly owned with his wife, who was then a junior doctor, and renting out his home in east London.
He has worked as Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign director and as an officer for the TSSA trade union.
Miss Rayner, 42, separated from her husband Mark in 2020 and was first seen with Mr Tarry, who had also parted from his wife, in January this year. The pair are understood to have become close while he was running her campaign to become deputy leader. He was famously spotted with a tell-tale toothbrush in his pocket as the pair left her London home.
Mr Tarry is fighting a selection battle in his constituency after the threshold to ‘trigger’ his seat was met, meaning he will face a vote to keep his seat for the next election.
All ten local Labour branches voted against him automatically becoming their candidate at the next election.
Mr Tarry claimed he had evidence of ‘rule-breaking, concrete evidence of voter fraud, voter impersonation… and the dangerous whipping up of communal tensions to undermine the democratic reselection process in an attempt to unseat me’.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11057321/Unions-war-Labour-strike-linked-sacking-Angela-Rayners-boyfriend.html
