Unite members have voted to suspend deputy prime minister Angela Rayner from the union due to her role in the long-running Birmingham bin strike.
The decision was taken on Friday (11 July) following an emergency motion passed at the union’s policy conference in Brighton.
Birmingham council leader John Cotton was also suspended.
Talks between the council and the union broke down yesterday with Cllr Cotton saying the council had ‘reached the absolute limit of what we can offer’ and would now ‘press ahead’ with its plans to reform the waste service.
Unite’s motion condemned the council for ‘its threat to effectively fire and rehire, on pain of redundancy, the Unite Birmingham bin workers’.
The Labour government was also condemned for giving its ‘support to the council and the commissioners, originally appointed by the Tories and maintained by Labour.’
The Government and council have been contacted for comment.
