This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A rival of Len McCluskey, Jeremy Corbyn’s close ally, has dropped a claim of unfair dismissal against the union Unite, it has emerged.

Gerard Coyne, the union’s former West Midlands regional secretary, withdrew a claim on Wednesday that he was unfairly sacked for misuse of data.

Coyne’s withdrawal will be seen as the final action in a battle for control of the UK’s biggest union, which is also Labour’s biggest donor. Coyne was backed by a number of MPs hostile to Corbyn.

Coyne was sacked in June 2017, three months after standing against McCluskey in an election to become the union’s general secretary.

McCluskey, the incumbent, defeated Coyne after a bitter month-long campaign that culminated in Coyne’s suspension from his union role 24 hours before the results of the vote were declared.

McCluskey won 59,067 votes (45.4%), Coyne 53,544 (41.5%) and the grassroots candidate Ian Allinson took 17,143 (13.1%), on a turnout of just over 12%.

An investigation into Coyne, who has been a member of the union for 29 years, was led by Andrew Murray, Unite’s chief of staff who was seconded to the Corbyn campaign during the general election.

Coyne was found guilty of using Labour party data and a call centre used by the party’s West Midlands mayoral candidate, Siôn Simon, to contact potential supporters.

During the campaign, McCluskey’s supporters were angered by Coyne’s claim that McCluskey had behaved like a 1970s “union baron”, throwing his weight around in Westminster, making and breaking political careers.

Reacting to Coyne’s withdrawal, Howard Beckett, the union’s assistant general secretary for legal affairs, said: “We welcome the withdrawal of Mr Coyne’s case against Unite. This now concludes the litany of challenges Mr Coyne has brought against the union relating to his defeat in last year’s general secretary election and his dismissal from the union for misusing his position as regional secretary.

“It should be noted that not a single one of his cases, at the employment tribunal, with the certification officer or the information commissioner has been successful,” he said.

Beckett said Unite was pursuing others outside the union for trying to influence the election.

“We remain, however, deeply concerned as to some of the matters that have come to light in the course of all these proceedings, indicating substantial external interference in the affairs of our union and the possible breach of data protection legislation. We shall be pursuing these matters vigorously with the appropriate authorities,” he said.

A friend of Coyne said he had decided to drop the case after running out of funds. “He is an individual and the union was employing a top barrister so the case could have cost Gerard £20,000 if he had lost. He had a good case but could not risk it,” the friend said.



