Angela Rayner suspended from Unite amid Birmingham bin strike controversy

Unite the Union has suspended deputy prime minister and Ashton-Under-Lyne MP Angela Rayner in the latest escalation of the Birmingham bin strike row.

The Labour-run Birmingham Council has been in a long-running dispute with Unite the Union since January, when bin workers staged a walkout after the council announced plans to scrap Waste Cycling and Collection Officer roles - meaning some workers would see an £8,000 pay cut. 

Unite the Union claimed the number of affected workers could be as high as 170, while the council claimed 17. The union have also called for the council to guarantee long-term pay for Grade 4 bin lorry drivers, who they say would be among those affected by the pay cut. 

As the situation continued, an all-out strike was launched in March, with discarded waste and piles of rubbish becoming an increasingly common sight across the city, even as workers were replaced with agency staff.

Unite announced they had suspended Rayner's membership after she called for workers to accept a deal tabled by Birmingham City Council in a bid to end the strikes, with council leader John Cotton saying on Wednesday (9th July) that the council had reached the "absolute limit" of what they could offer.

Angela Rayner was still recorded as a member of Unite as late as May, despite her office saying she had resigned months ago. Unite also said that John Cotton and other Labour councillors had also been suspended for "bringing the union into disrepute".

The suspensions were voted on by 800 Unite delegates at a policy conference in Brighton on Friday (4th July).

Unite the Union is the biggest union funder of the Labour Party, donating £414,610 in the first quarter of 2025, but have threatened to re-examine their relationship with the party over their response to striking workers. 

In a statement, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Unite is crystal clear, it will call out bad employers regardless of the colour of their rosette.

"Angela Rayner has had every opportunity to intervene and resolve this dispute, but has instead backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts.

"The disgraceful actions of the government and a so-called Labour council, is essentially fire and rehire and makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act promises.

"People up and down the country are asking whose side is the Labour government on and coming up with the answer not workers."

A No 10 spokesperson said of the strike that the government’s priority has always been Birmingham residents.