Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham has delivered a blistering assessment of the Labour Party's electoral collapse, warning that without fundamental change the party faces extinction. Writing for The Mirror, she argued that working class people expect fundamental change, not tinkering, and that Labour has become 'unmoored from its history and the working class.'
Labour's Electoral Disaster
In Thursday's local elections, voters delivered a devastating verdict on Labour. They painted ballot boxes turquoise and green, using what Graham described as 'the brush of decades of Labour failure.' Labour lost the towns, swathes of the Midlands and the north, and is becoming the party of the professional middle class—not a cross-class coalition, but a strictly middle-class centrist party.
Graham said the results brought tears to her eyes, describing a tribe 'utterly broken by decades of PR lightweights worshipping at the altar of the City and the super-rich.' She accused those who should never have been allowed near the party of taking it over in the name of faction wars.
Failed Policies and Priorities
The Unite leader highlighted several areas where Labour has failed working people. She pointed out that before the city banker's crash, the UK had a 35% debt-to-GDP ratio, which shot up to 70% after the bailout. Yet Labour's response has been to allow bankers' bonuses to return while doing nothing to tackle profiteering.
Graham cited specific examples: the Big Four UK banks made £22.1 billion in profits from UK operations last year, untouched; BP made £2.4 billion in just the first three months of 2026, war profits untouched; and Tesco reported £3.2 billion profit in the year to February 2026, its highest this decade, paying £2.5 billion out to shareholders.
'And they wonder why the working class has turned its back on them,' she wrote. 'Tighten your belts they say, you've got to pay again.'
Insufficient Reforms
Graham dismissed Labour's achievements as insufficient: breakfast clubs, a few light touch rights for renters, and some employment rights with big holes. 'They pale into insignificance compared to the challenges being faced by working class people,' she said, recalling an elderly lady who had worked all her life but could no longer afford to turn her toaster on.
'There is no plan. Nothing. The cupboard is bare. We are stuck in a rigged system where everyday people always, always pay.'
A Call for Fundamental Change
Graham warned that simply changing the leader will not be enough. Without fundamental change in policy, the Labour Party will be finished. She argued that this crisis is decades long in the making, and anyone making a pitch to take over needs to come with more than slogans and PR stunts.
She stated that if her members were asked to vote on Labour affiliation today, most would vote to leave. 'A change in leader on its own is not enough. A fundamental change in direction is now required. And make no mistake the Labour Party is in the last chance saloon.'
Without trade unions and workers, Graham concluded, Labour has no base. It will end up as just one more centrist party stuck in managerialism and clinging to focus groups. 'It's now or never. Change or die.'
