Delegates at the Cwu's biannual conference in Bournemouth spent the second day arguing over the union's political relationship with Labour, even as Angela Rayner took the platform to praise the movement's role in shaping workers’ rights. The mood in the room reflected both anger at Labour's direction and a determination to keep pressure on the party from the outside and inside.
Dave Ward told delegates it felt to a lot of people in the country that the Labour Party had completely disconnected from working-class people, though he said Rayner definitely understood their needs. He thanked her for strongly advocating for the Employment Rights Act and said she had always stood by the movement during a difficult period. Later, finance manager Nabih Fonkwe gave a report on finances and delegates also debated regional funds, underscoring that politics was only one part of a broader set of union priorities.
Rayner, who said she had been crawling through mud all weekend after completing a Tough Mudder challenge, used her speech to attack global companies for using instability to make record profits. She said working-class people were once again paying the price for decisions they did not make and that the system felt rigged against people across the UK. She also said the prime minister acknowledged the frustration that exists, but warned that tweaks would not fix the country’s fundamental challenges and that Labour existed to make people better off, something she said was not happening fast enough.
She tied that criticism to her own background, saying she was born in Stockport and raised in the trade union movement. Rayner said the Employment Rights Act was developed by the trade union movement and would be delivered with the unions, adding that there was no way the New Deal for Workers campaign would have become law without the affiliated unions. She pointed to governments in Spain and Canada as examples of economies that can grow while people thrive when leaders stay true to their values and put people first.
The speech landed against a wider backdrop of Labour turmoil and poor by-election results, which has sharpened pressure on union leaders to decide how closely to align with the party. Rayner's warning that the rise of Nigel Farage and Reform meant a serious struggle was ahead for the labour movement made that calculation even starker. For the Cwu, the message from Bournemouth was clear: the union wants influence, but it expects Labour to earn it.
