Unite activist enters general secretary race with “socialist challenge” to McCluskey

Len McCluskey faces a fresh rival in his bid to be re-elected Unite leader after a union activist declared he would mount a “grassroots socialist challenge”.

Ian Allinson, a Fujitsu worker for 25 years, today became the third person to join the race after McCluskey, who launched his campaign this morning, and Gerard Coyne.

Allinson, who served on the executive of Britain’s biggest union for a decade up to 2014, said the experience of fighting cuts in his own workplace marked him out from the men he described as “the two establishment candidates”.

Today he set out his take on the dividing lines in the contest in which he characterised McCluskey, an ally of Jeremy Corbyn, as offering “more of the same”, and Coyne, secretary of Unite in the West Midlands, as wanting to “turn the clock back to the bad old days” when, he claimed, the union failed to stand up to the New Labour government.

McCluskey remains the favourite, after six years in the job, while Coyne confirmed his place in the contest earlier this week when he pledged he would steer Unite away from “Westminster power games”.

Allinson now needs to secure enough nominations from union branches to ensure he earns a place on the ballot paper and he has begun to set out his pitch in a blog.

“It is essential that this election does not become a battle between Len McCluskey, offering more of the same, and Gerard Coyne, offering to turn the clock back to the bad old days when our union backed New Labour even while they attacked our own members – and saw membership decline,” he wrote.

“If members want to see a Corbyn government, Unite needs to shift the debate by fighting in workplaces and communities now, rather than relying so heavily on internal battles within Labour….

“Despite some progress during Len McCluskey’s time as General Secretary, our union is still falling far short of an adequate response to the onslaught members are facing from government, local authorities and employers.”

Allinson is chair of Unite’s UK combine at Fujitsu and described himself as having led the first national strike in his industry in 2009-10.