General secretary says he will campaign alongside ex-shadow work and pensions secretary, who won support of 60% of members who voted

The GMB union has backed Owen Smith for Labour leader by a wide margin, after a ballot of members.

The former shadow work and pensions secretary won the backing of 60% of the 43,419 members who cast their votes in the ballot.

GMB, whose members include workers on the Trident nuclear weapons programme, is the only union so far to hold a consultation of all members over its endorsement of a Labour leadership candidate. However, only around 30,000 of the GMB’s 639,000 members are eligible to actually vote in the Labour leadership election – those who pay into the union’s political fund.

Ed Miliband urges Labour members to vote for Owen Smith Read more

Tim Roache, the union’s general secretary, said it was time for the union to “face up to reality” and said he would now campaign alongside Smith. “The Labour party is at a crossroads,” he said. “I’m under no illusions that we’re living through dangerous political times – the like of which I haven’t seen during my three decades in our movement.”



Sources in the Corbyn campaign said the endorsement had been expected, and also claimed the ballot question had been loaded against the Labour leader because it focussed on electability, a key component of Smith’s campaign.

The ballot had asked: “Who do you think is best placed to lead the Labour party to a general election victory and serve as prime minister?”

Roache said he had been determined that members should be balloted before the union decided who to endorse. “I’ll proudly campaign alongside Owen in the coming weeks and months to deliver on his pledges to end the public sector pay freeze, to support defence workers, to invest in health and industry, and to build an industrial strategy – these are bread and butter issues for the people I represent,” Roache said.

“But we can only tackle them if we’re in government. That’s the endgame and I hope, whatever the final result, the Labour party will unite when all this is over. GMB members cannot afford for Labour to be talking to itself in a bubble for the next five years while the Tories run riot through our rights at work, our public services and our communities.”

Sir Paul Kenny, who recently retired as boss of the GMB, has said he will vote for Smith.

Smith said it was a great honour to receive GMB’s nomination to be the next Labour leader. “At the heart of my campaign are commitments to strengthening our trade unions, ending exploitation and delivering greater equality,” he said.

“I look forward to working with the GMB, its members and all in the labour movement to tackle inequality, invest in strong public services, and for Britain to have trade union and workers’ rights that are the envy of the world.”

A Corbyn campaign source said of the result: “This is not unexpected, we heard that there had been a well-funded and orchestrated effort from certain rightwing political officers at the GMB close to [Labour’s deputy leader, Tom] Watson and Smith.

“But we still have the majority of affiliated trade union support and we didn’t have the GMB’s nomination last year and we still won.”



A source on Smith’s campaign said they saw the endorsement as particularly significant given the result was a full ballot of members. Referencing the YouGov poll of trade union members last month, which showed a dampening of support for Jeremy Corbyn, the source said: “Our guess is that is why other unions are not doing it, at worst it would be a split and at best there would be backing for Owen.”



Smith has actively courted an endorsement from the GMB, meeting local activists in Barnsley on Tuesday at the distribution site for online fashion retailer Asos on Tuesday.



The MP has written to the chair of the business, innovation and skills Select committee, Iain Wright, asking him to investigate the situation for zero-hours contract staff at the warehouse.

In a post on his website, Smith said: “Insecurity, low-pay and poor working conditions are an increasing reality for many working people in Britain, as we have seen most recently at Sports Direct. At the moment, workers in this country have some of the least rights in Europe. As Labour leader I would campaign to change that and make sure we have workplace protections that are the finest in the world.”

Unison, the UK’s second largest union, will consult regional committees and its elected Labour Link committee, which represent members who pay into the political fund, before announcing its endorsement.

Members who are eligible to vote but do not have the full membership have been asked which candidate they prefer and the result will be fed to the committee and expected to be announced on Thursday.

The UK’s largest union, Unite, has formally nominated Corbyn. Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, has been a staunch defender of the current leader, with delegates voting to endorse Corbyn at the union’s conference in July.

A number of other unions have also backed Corbyn, including the Communication Workers’ Union, construction workers’ union UCATT, the Fire Brigades Union and rail unions TSSA and Aslef, as well as Young Labour.

Smith has the backing of the Musicians’ Union, Socialist Health Association and USDAW.