Unison General Secretary Election

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Unison is the second largest Union in Britain and a major donor to the Labour Party. It recently held an election for General Secretary. There wasn't much media coverage as Prentis was widely (and rightly) seen as a lock for re-election.

Dave Prentis*: 145,351, 67.2%
Roger Bannister: 42,651, 19.7%
Paul Holmes: 28,114, 13%

Turnout was low, but then it always is. Slightly under 15% if anyone's interested.

Prentis has been General Secretary since 2001 and was regarded as the establishment candidate. A powerful man in Trade Union and Labour Party circles, he's become controversial in certain quarters due to alleged purges of hard-left activists. The other two candidates were different shades of hard left; Bannister is a Trot, while Holmes is a Labour member backed by the United Left group within the Union.

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

FWIW I voted for Prentis, mainly because he was seeking re-election and had the nomination of my Unison branch rather than because of anything he stood for