Two prominent figures accused of working against Labour and undermining party’s disciplinary procedures told jobs are safe in spite of outrage among union’s members and NEC

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis

On Tuesday, hundreds of Unison members – including more than twenty elected members of the union’s National Executive Committee – demanded action from general secretary Dave Prentis after two senior Unison officials were accused in the leaked Labour report that detailed sabotage of Labour’s disciplinary processes and electoral effects.

In an open letter, the members demanded a full investigation and firm action against any staff found to have undermined Labour as described in the report, “o retain the confidence of our members, who look to the Labour Party to deliver the political change they need“.

Prentis’s action appears to be a promise of protection to Emilie Oldknow and John Stolliday.

According to Murdoch hack Gabriel Pogrund, seemingly at a loose end now that Jeremy Corbyn is no longer leader of the Labour Party, Prentis has told the pair not to worry about their positions because he will back them.

Stolliday’s role as the union’s ‘Head of Member Liaison’, according to Unison insiders, gives him oversight of the general secretary election that will take place later this year.

The union was at the centre of controversy in the ‘Unisongate’ scandal, when the official Certification Officer found that Prentis-supporting staff had ‘inappropriately’ interfered in the last general secretary election. However, after initially pursuing a whistleblower who revealed the interference, the union took no action, according to the letter signed by members on Tuesday:

As National Executive Committee members and concerned members from within the broader union, we note the following: – That UNISON has taken no internal action since the Certification Officer’s report concluded its own staff had interfered inappropriately and outside of UNISON’s rules in the general secretary election of 2015.

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