Image: Jess Hurd
Within a week of the General Election, UNISON hosted an event at Parliament to welcome new and returning MPs with links to the union – whether as members, activists or staff members.
Chief among the returning MPs was Angela Rayner, the new deputy prime minister no less, and health secretary Wes Streeting.
Introducing Ms Rayner, UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: “I can’t tell you how many times I go to UNISON events and people talk about you, because you are the inspiration for so many people – and particularly women – in unions.”
For her part, Ms Rayner commented: “UNISON is a great union and I’ll always have it in my heart. I always say, ‘I was born in Stockport and raised in the movement’ and I know what a force for good it is. I know sometimes it’s tough, sometimes it’s difficult, but it’s never as hard when you know you’re going to make a real difference.
“You [UNISON] are in government with us, I know you’ve got my back, we’re going to smash it and we’re going to change Britain for the better.”
And now a new generation of Labour MPs will be reinforcing that sentiment. Activist met a few of them.
Mark Ferguson MP, Gateshead Central and Whickham
Can you tell us a bit about yourself
I was a journalist before working for UNISON as national head of Labour Link. So I’ve gone from writing about politics, to making the case on behalf of UNISON members to politicians – to now, in my new role, having the chance to deliver for my local community as well as public services and those who provide them.
What made you want to run as an MP?
The chance to help deliver change for a community I care about. I grew up in Gateshead and I wanted to help drive change in my local area. Too often places like Gateshead are ignored in Westminster; so I wanted to use the skills and experiences I’ve gained over my career to help make a difference to my hometown, and the country as a whole.
We’ve had 14 years of cuts and austerity and places like Gateshead have been the hardest hit. Now I want my local community to be part of a new economy, with better jobs and better pay at its heart.
What’s your strongest memory of election night?
There are two: being sat on the sofa with my wife in Low Fell [a suburb of Gateshead] when the exit poll came out; and being on the same sofa hours later, with my agent Chris, as the sun came up again. In between, I became an MP – that bit feels like a blur, it’s the moments on that sofa before and afterwards that I will always remember. The excitement of the possibility of a Labour government and then the responsibility to deliver for those who have put their trust in me.
As head of UNISON’s Labour Link, you’ve spent five years liaising between the union and Labour. What are your initial thoughts about being, now, on the other side of that dynamic?
I think it’s clear this is a Labour government that understands the concerns and priorities of working people; we’ve got active trade unionists across the Parliamentary party, including in the cabinet. Of course, my role has changed – but I’m looking forward to finishing work I began at UNISON by getting right behind the New Deal for Working People, which will change lives in my community and yours.
And having worked for UNISON, how do you feel that experience will inform your work as an MP?
I’ve spent years telling UNISON activists the same thing. If you’re an active trade unionist. If you represent people. If you’re able to make the case for someone else. If you’re willing to campaign for what you believe in. If you’re trusted by other people to stand up for them. If you do all that, then you’ve got a lot of the building blocks to be an MP. And I hope that my experience at UNISON has given me that same good grounding.
On a personal level, what do you hope to achieve in the next four or five years?
I’ve made five pledges to the people of Gateshead Central and Whickham and I’ll work every day to make sure they’re kept: bringing skilled, well-paid jobs to the area, holding regular surgeries so I’m fully accessible, getting waiting lists down in our hospitals and GP surgeries, more neighbourhood police to keep our streets safe and – of course – delivering Labour’s New Deal for Working People.
Katrina Murray MP, Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch
I first got involved in UNISON when I was working as a part-time youth worker, in 1995. I was 24. I have been a Labour Party member since I was 19, so I was encouraged to get involved in young members but also the Labour Link. I remember the branch had got involved in supporting one of the local foodbanks, and there are a number of local Labour Party members in Cumbernauld who are volunteers there.
I moved into the NHS in 2001 and got involved in my health branch. Although I ultimately became branch secretary and a member of the NEC, the bit of the union role I liked most was the representation of members and lobbying in their interests.
What made you want to run as an MP?
I made the decision to put myself forward for selection because I got angry about how the UNISON members that I represented were being treated, by both the Conservative and SNP governments. People were struggling to put food on the table, but were also burnt out. Someone needed to speak up.
What’s your strongest memory of election night?
I hadn’t come into the election campaign expecting to win, or even thinking it was possible, so election night was strange. It was only the following morning that I had realised what we had achieved. On the 22nd May there were two Scottish Labour MPs and now there are 37 of us. The best bit was seeing so many of my branch members who were working as polling clerks making sure the election happened smoothly.
Having been an activist with UNISON, how do you feel that experience will inform your work as an MP?
It honestly doesn’t matter what negotiations or decision-making I’ve been involved in, I’ve always asked myself how I would be able explain those decisions and be accountable for them with the domestics or the phlebotomists in the hospital. That bit hasn’t changed. The decisions will be different, but it’s still important to think about how they will affect people.
On a personal level, what do you hope to achieve in the next 4 or 5 years?
There is so much that needs to change and so much that I want this government to do, but the most important thing for me is to bring decency and integrity back into politics. People have been so let down by governments; I just want us to deliver what we have said that we can.
Angela Rayner is UNISON’s most famous member in government. Has she been an inspiration in any way?
I knew Angela when she was an activist. What she has taught me is that UNISON training and development makes anything possible and that we are absolutely good enough.
Neil Duncan-Jordan MP, Poole
Image: Emma Lang
For the last five years I’ve worked as a regional organiser in the South East. As an RO I covered a number of health branches and a large local authority branch, as well as being the HE lead.
What made you want to run as an MP?
Being an MP was always something that I wanted to do really, having been involved in politics in some form or another since the age of 14. With this election it just felt like it was the right time to stand.
What’s your strongest memory of election night?
It was a close-run thing! Most of the night I was a nervous wreck. I won by 82 votes on the first count. This went down to 6 on the recount, then 18 on the second recount and 18 again on the third recount. I told everyone I’d actually won 4 times!
Having worked for UNISON, how do you feel that experience will inform your work as an MP?
I have been active in the movement for nearly 40 years, and with that comes a certain approach to how you see the world and the possible solutions to the problems you face. Of course, there is a strong dose of pragmatism, but there are also steadfast principles that inform how you behave and what you think is right.
On a personal level, what do you hope to achieve in the next four or five years?
Being the first ever Labour MP for Poole is rather special and can never be taken away. It’ll be in the history books now. My aim is to be a really good constituency MP, so that next time I get in with more than just 18 votes!
Deirdre Costigan MP, Ealing Southall
I moved to the UK from Ireland in the 1990s to finish my education and I’ve been a UNISON member for nearly 20 years. I was a hardworking steward and branch chair of Merton local government branch, where I helped lead single status negotiations for equal pay for care workers. I was an activist in the Greater London region and chair of the National LGBT committee for five years.
UNISON is great at taking on activists as staff and that’s what happened to me when I became UNISON’s national officer for disability equality, six years ago. Since then, I’ve concentrated on campaigning for better rights for disabled workers and supporting the voice of the amazing disabled members we have in UNISON.
What made you want to run as an MP?
I was elected as a local councillor in 2018 and then in 2021 I was elected as deputy leader of Ealing Council. I got to make a real difference to people’s lives, whether it was helping sort out individual problems like bad housing or delivering new parks, playgrounds and cycle lanes across the borough.
But as a councillor I couldn’t do anything about the lack of police on the streets in Southall and West Ealing, or about the difficulties people faced in getting a GP appointment or accessing A&E; and under the Conservative government the council was unable to build the housing local people in Ealing Southall desperately needed.
So, I stood to be the MP for Ealing Southall in order to get a Labour government and to be able to do something about crime and anti-social behaviour on our streets, to be able to do something about our NHS and to be able to do something about families living in overcrowded and crumbling homes.
What’s your strongest memory of election night?
The moment it was announced on the TV that we had just got to 326 Labour MPs and had achieved a Labour majority – there was a huge cheer in Ealing. But I also remember being really shocked when the council chief executive handed me a letter addressed to “Member of Parliament, Ealing Southall” and I realised that was me!
On a personal level, what do you hope to achieve in the next four or five years?
I hope that people in Ealing Southall will feel Labour has made a difference to their lives, that they can feel proud of where they live and that they can be more confident that their kids won’t face some of the barriers they have faced, in getting on in life over the last 14 years.
Having worked for UNISON, how do you feel that experience will inform your work as an MP?
As national officer for disability equality I’ve campaigned for mandatory disability pay gap monitoring, better rights to reasonable adjustments and for a national care service, so I’ll be doing my best to make sure a Labour government delivers on these.
I made my first speech at UNISON LGBT+ conference and I hope that will help me make my maiden speech in parliament with less of the nerves I had back then!
But most of all UNISON gave me the confidence and support to get involved in politics in the first place, to believe in myself and not to worry that other people were better than me, because I had the power of 1.3m amazing members behind me, rooting for me to succeed.
Jacob Collier MP, Burton and Uttoxeter
I was born and grew up in Burton, so am really proud to be representing the place that’s my home. My family still live there, and I’ve been bumping into teachers on the campaign trail and people that I’ve known for many years. It’s a privilege to represent where I’m from.
Most recently I was a UNISON rep in my workplace, the fire and rescue service in Nottinghamshire, and a communications officer, representing support staff. Before that, I worked in the social care sector doing comms. I’d say I’ve had quite a UNISON oriented career.
What made you want to be an MP?
It’s the best way to serve people and make the difference. We can talk about employment rights and what happens in the workplace, but we have to, as Parliament, change the conditions and make sure we have those minimum standards. We want employers to go above them, but we need to make sure those protections are in place for some of the lowest paid workers in our country. A lot of UNISON members are women and on low pay and this is particularly going to help those members.
What’s your strongest memory of election night?
Giving my victory speech. I had my parents off to the left, who had been really supportive throughout the campaign, and it was a proud moment for them but also a proud moment for me. As I was doing my speech I couldn’t really look at them, because I thought I was going to tear up. It was very special.
What union principles are you going to take into Parliament?
Integrity and serving people and putting them before yourself.
Angela Rayner is UNISON’s most famous member in government. Has she been an inspiration in any way?
I think she’s a huge inspiration, for everybody in UNISON, because she’s a self-made person. She’s been in the position that lots of our members have been in, and are in, and to have somebody with that experience being one of the most senior people in the country, that really says to our members that you can do it too. Get more involved in the union and make your contribution, because you could end up in the cabinet.
On a personal level, what do you hope to achieve in the next four or five years?
Put the constituency on the map. Burton and Uttoxeter – people don’t really know where it is. They know we’ve got a tradition around brewing. I want to be a strong representative for my area and stand up for people. And obviously the New Deal for Working People is something I’m really proud of and I’m looking forward to putting that legislation in place in the first 100 days.
Johanna Baxter MP, Paisley & Renfrewshire South
I was previously the head of local government for UNISON Scotland, so I led negotiations on behalf of 200,000 local government workers in Scotland. I’ve worked in UNISON since 2016, prior to that I worked for Prospect and prior to that I worked for PCS. I’ve been a trade unionist all my working life.
Why did you become an MP?
For me, it’s always been about how you make the most change for people. As a trade union official, you learn in intricate detail the limitations of employment law in this country, and I think [as an MP] you can make more of a difference changing those pieces of legislation to make people’s life at work easier.
What’s your strongest memory from election night?
I don’t think it feels real yet… Being very, very tired throughout the entire thing and not quite believing it, until my organiser met me outside of the count and assured me the vote looked good and wanted to talk to me about the winning speech, but I still wasn’t in that place.
One thing you want to achieve over the next five years?
I want to help Angela [Rayner] get that new deal enacted, amongst other things. There’s such a huge agenda in terms of issues that affect constituents. Council funding needs to be fixed. As someone who previously led negotiations in local government, I know absolutely the dire straits they find themselves in.
What trade union values will you bring to your work as an MP?
Well, I think, in the trade union movement you treat others how you’d like to be treated yourself. That’s a core belief that I have. But also, just making sure that we have fairness and equality for everybody.
Interviews: Demetrios Matheou and Simon Jackson
Westminister portraits: Jess Hurd
