The Canary has recently published an article outlining the contents of transcripts which have come into our possession from an insider source within Unite. These transcripts clearly detailed aggressive, abusive language throughout meetings of the National Organising and Leverage Department’s Research Unit (OLRU).
These documents revealed a pattern of behaviour which intimidated staff members, making them fear reprisals or feel that their jobs might be under threat for speaking up about their experience working under Sharon Graham’s husband, Jack Clarke.
However, Stephen Pinder, the legal director at Unite the Union, has refuted the contents of the transcripts, denying the allegations against the General Secretary’s husband, Clarke. This is true, also, for our subsequent piece on the contents of the two grievance complaints raised against Clarke by two staff members in the OLRU.
On the other hand, the response we received raises even more questions about the judgement of Unite’s decision-makers while Clarke was under formal investigation.
Worse, it throws in a load of irrelevant information about people who had nothing to do with the OLRU’s work. In turn, that looks less like an answer to the serious issues we raised and more like a deliberate attempt to muddy the waters and deflect attention from our reporting.
So, The Canary will deal with those claims head-on, pick apart the discrepancies and explain exactly why they are irrelevant to the story we are telling: the bullying and toxic workplace culture Clarke imposed on Unite workers.
EXCLUSIVE: Unite leader’s husband bullied and manipulated union staff, transcripts show
Unite’s Sharon Graham tried to bury evidence which reveals how her husband, Jack Clarke, bullied and belittled staff. @skwawkbox & @MaddisonW92 report:https://t.co/5UlbGDk3ay…
— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) August 12, 2026
‘Hey, look over there!’
You are proposing to publish highly selective clips from covert recordings of staff members speaking outside working time almost a decade ago, long before the current General Secretary was elected.
These clips have clearly been carefully selected to distort the meaning of those conversations. We can evidence that in reality those individuals were expressing disgust at what they viewed to be a culture of wrongdoing and corruption at the heart of their union under the leadership of Len McCluskey, Howard Beckett, and Steve Turner – as well as attacks being made against Sharon Graham at the time because she had recently decided to run against Steve Turner at the next General Secretary election.
This is a desperate attempt to deflect attention from the clear evidence of aggressive rhetoric, intimidation and bullying behaviour regularly displayed by Clarke.
To be clear, the transcripts do indeed contain references to McCluskey, Turner and Beckett – alongside a stream of childish personalised insults. However, every quote under scrutiny by the Canary comes directly from Clarke’s own angry monologues, with his ire firmly aimed at his staff.
It is also bizarre to suggest, on the one hand, that these staff members were working against her leadership campaign, while on the other claiming they were simply “expressing disgust” at McCluskey’s leadership.
Those two things cannot both be true. Clarke and Graham can’t have it both ways.
Ms Graham was not present and did not take part in the conversations, but her husband and others did discuss the pressure created by those attacks on her and the resulting stress they experienced, in what they thought was a safe space.
Graham wasn’t part of the conversations, and staff repeatedly noted that they rarely saw her anymore. Instead, her husband and department manager, Jack Clarke, routinely relayed her views.
So, the suggestion that she had no idea what was going on is a real stretch – particularly when the lines between her personal and professional relationships appear to have been so blurred.
EXCLUSIVE: leaked documents explode Unite’s denials of Graham’s husband’s bullying of staff https://t.co/zPfYNBs7i6
— Damien Willey (Kernow Damo)
(@KernowDamo) August 17, 2026
No accountability or self-awareness from Unite
In reality, the transcripts mostly document Unite staff members expressing their opinions regarding whether the McCluskey/ Beckett regime was implicated in collusion with blacklisting, corruption around the Birmingham hotel development, and whether resources from union contractors and organisations to which Unite was affiliated (including the ITF) was being used during internal elections. All these opinions were discussed frankly, after working hours in a supposedly private setting.
Um, no. These quotes were taken from Clarke’s angry monologues. Those outbursts followed staff members raising how difficult they found speaking up due to Clarke’s anger. Also, the repeated efforts to suggest this was in a private setting outside of work doesn’t hold up when the transcripts also detail cancelled evening plans by staff members to attend.
Going further, Clarke himself is quoted by the Canary telling his staff that they would be expected to work beyond the hours they were paid for. So, arguably, all of these were work conversations.
Also, again, the abusive rhetoric is solely said by Clarke, not other staff members
However, there is no evidence in any of these transcripts which substantiates any allegations made by you. It is notable that the member of staff referred to has been employed by Unite for over 25 years and never had a single complaint about his behaviour until his wife indicated that she would run as General Secretary. It is also notable that when these recordings were passed to Mr McCluskey the only charge that he could make stick was for “extreme language and rudeness in relation to senior figures of the union”.
This is something McCluskey should also answer. It is hard to understand why this rhetoric towards staff members was deemed to be acceptable after the investigation into Clarke.
Especially considering the fact that, upon our own investigation, this pattern of abuse was the most confronting issue within these documents.
EXCLUSIVE: Jack Clarke’s anger silenced Unite staff, making them anxious and unwell
Grievances, shared with the Canary, lay bare the misogynistic and toxic environment Jack Clarke created at Unite the Union. @skwawkbox & @MaddisonW92 report:https://t.co/IgEGbdva31…
— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) August 13, 2026
‘Covert recordings’ which were used in the official investigation
That covert recordings were used in a failed attempt to attack a member of staff related to the current General Secretary should come as no surprise to anyone. Under Unite’s previous leadership regime, covert recordings were used historically for the purpose of internal political attacks.
This was a team of hard-working people who clearly felt helpless in being able to find a resolution for the evidently toxic patterns of behaviour in the office. Therefore, it then stands to reason that they might seek evidence to support their grievances.
More to the point, that Clarke could not conduct a team meeting without launching into abusive rants designed to shut down perfectly valid concerns raised by staff is entirely on him.
And you can feel the tension in the transcripts. Staff clearly walked on eggshells around Clarke, choosing their words carefully and treading cautiously whenever they challenged him.
It is also true that since the recordings were made the actions of the McCluskey/Beckett regime have come under more scrutiny and more questions have been raised about the ethics of that administration.
It is a matter of record following independent KC reports into the Birmingham hotel project, commissioned by the current General Secretary, that the union was overcharged to the tune of tens of millions of pounds by a business run by friends of Mr McCluskey, after the business with no previous experience in the major building projects was engaged without any tender process to build the hotel development in Birmingham.
Meanwhile, Mr Beckett was in charge of Affiliated Services during the period which is now subject to a longstanding criminal investigation by the South Wales Police. Unite is currently preparing legal action to recover the union’s money.
There is also an outstanding inquiry into union collusion with Blacklisting which was commissioned by the current General Secretary and is due to be published shortly. We have no doubt that this will also shine a light on actions taken on that matter by the previous regime.
The ethics of the prior administration may well warrant further investigation. A police investigation is allegedly ongoing, as noted above. However, after 3.5 years of investigation, South Wales Police have not announced any charges against McCluskey or Beckett despite Graham’s continuous allegations.
Moreover, despite being General Secretary for 5 years, Graham has produced no evidence to the public which substantiates these serious allegations raised against McCluskey, which he has long refuted. Unite is Graham are also spending hundreds of thousands of pounds defending a lawsuit brought by Beckett against Graham for breaching his privacy by allegedly leaking hostile briefings to right-wing journalist Joe Pike. Pike recently denied being close to the Labour right in Falkirk – but not receiving information from Graham:
Pike disputed his alleged links with Falkirk Labour right. He didn’t dispute that Graham leaked sensitive info to him…https://t.co/BKHbvpBd7i
— SKWAWKBOX (@skwawkbox) July 28, 2026
But that isn’t the focus of our pieces which are informed by solid evidence. And frankly, condemning the previous administration while refusing to do better in their own, turning a blind eye to blatant bullying and aggressive rhetoric, makes the criticism ring hollow.
Factional warfare, apparently, within Unite
In that context the publication of these highly selective extracts from covert recordings in breach of individuals’ privacy rights is clearly just another factional attempt by The Canary and Skwawkbox to attack the current leadership of Unite.
The Canary and Skwawkbox have been ardent supporters of Mr McCluskey and Mr Beckett for many years. Under their leadership members’ money was used to pay for Skwawkbox’s legal costs and they gave other support which was cut off by the current General Secretary. Since that time a campaign of lies and hate has been conducted by Skwarkbox which the Union believes to have been done on behalf of Mr McCluskey and Mr Beckett, and which has now been taken up by your publication. We have documented the many defamatory and untrue claims you have made against Unite in that time and we will be taking legal action.
It seems clear that the loss of power in Unite by this faction, following successive decisive defeats at the Unite internal ballot box, has led to an increasingly desperate scorched earth strategy by a small group of their defenders to damage the union. This is clearly part of that. It will no longer be tolerated.
Again, the attempt to frame this as a factional battle, rather than a legitimate criticism of a very real and harmful pattern of behaviour, is pretty desperate. It is straight out of the narcissist’s playbook: deny, attack, then reverse the victim and the offender.
Anyone who has read my pieces on Your Party will know I am no McCluskey loyalist. In fact, I’m sure he is hardly a fan of my work given my criticism of his partner, Karie Murphy. That’s because I challenge all structures of power and hold those in charge to account for their own actions, with no fear or favour.
In this case, that has meant exposing this culture of bullying, intimidation, threats and abuse at the very top of Unite the Union.
Graham and Clarke remain at the helm of the UK’s second-largest union, representing more than a million workers. That makes this a critical issue – and one union members deserve to know the truth about.
Featured image via the Canary
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