Labour will be decimated in May local elections, Unite leader says.
Sharon Graham tells party to ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ after ‘shameful’ handling of Birmingham bin strike.
Fri 20 Mar 2026 07.00 GMT Labour will be “decimated” in the upcoming local elections and should “hang their heads in shame” over the handling of the Birmingham bin strike, Unite’s general secretary has said.
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In a speech to refuse workers near a waste depot in Tyseley on Thursday, Sharon Graham said working people were moving away from Labour in droves and called on the party to “wake up and smell the coffee”.
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“We are in one of the most significant strikes in decades,” she said. “An attack from a Labour council under a Labour government. Labour should hang their heads in shame. They are an absolute disgrace.”
Refuse workers in Birmingham began their industrial action over pay and conditions in January last year, and it escalated into an indefinite all-out strike two months later. Unite argued changes to the city’s waste collection service would cost some members £8,000 a year, a figure the council has disputed.
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The strikes, which could last beyond September, will be a key issue in Birmingham in the May local elections, when all 101 council seats are up for grabs.
Graham said: “In May, the polls tell us that Labour will be decimated. And it’s not hard to see why. This is England’s second city … Look at the mountains of waste and recycling still piling up,” she said. Guardian.
