Gerard Coyne, the West Midlands union leader standing in a bitter leadership contest for trade union Unite, has dismissed reports that members in the region are backing rival candidate Len McCluskey.

He said union officials had experienced “a degree of pressure” to back Mr McCluskey, but he was confident of winning the support of union members.

Mr McCluskey, the umion’s current general secretary who is standing again, has been nominated by 38 Unite branches in the West Midlands including Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) in Solihull and elsewhere, Cadbury in Bournville and Allied Bakeries in West Bromwich.

And his campaign has highlighted the level of support in the heart of the West Midlands - where Mr Coyne is Unite’s regional organiser.

But speaking to the Birmingham Mail, Mr Coyne said: “I always knew that in terms of this process around nominations, there is a degree of pressure that can be applied to supporting the incumbent, and some of the machinery that’s there that is available to the General Secretary and which is not as readily available to me as a challenger.

“I always knew that would be the case.

“i am really pleased with the level of support I have had from my region but also right across the country.

“The number of branches that have nominated in the West Midlands has been fantastic for me.

“Jaguar Land Rover, in terms of the overall membership they have, I know that many of the reps there, many of the members, will personally be supporting me.

“The branch nominations are not the things that wins elections. The votes are. And I’m more than comfortable with where the support is at the moment in relation to that.”

Mr McCluskey is a close ally of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the contest has become deeply personal in a way that mirrors the conflicts within the Labour Party.

Mr Coyne has previously claimed Mr McCluskey shares responsibility for Labour’s loss in the Copeland by-election, saying: “The Copeland meltdown is at Len McCluskey’s door.”

Unite the Union leader Len McCluskey.
Unite the Union leader Len McCluskey.

Meanwhile, Mr McCluskey claimed one of his opponents has decided “not to offer a positive vision for our union but to taint it with smears and do the bidding of meddlers from outside our union”. While there is a third candidate, left-winger Ian Allinson, the comments appear to refer to Mr Coyne.

Mr Coyne told the Birmingham Mail that he believed the union needed new leadership because Mr McCluskey spent too much time involving himself in the Labour Party’s internal battles as a supporter of Mr Corbyn.

“We have enormous challenges to face up to with Brexit, with increasing automation, with downward pressure on wages and an increasingly insecure workforce with zero-hour contracts and self-employment.

“It is time for the union to be focusing on those issues that are important to pur members, rather than playing around in the power politics of the Westminster bubble.

“That needs to change and particularly with Brexit coming very quickly towards us, we need a general secretary that is focused on getting the best arrangements possible out of that and not being obsessed with the politics agenda.

“It is more important to me to be focused on saving our members’ jobs rather than the job of the leader of the Labour Party.”

Priorities would include ensuring that Unite members continue to enjoy employment rights currently guaranteed by the European Union, he said.

Mr Coyne also said he wanted to ensure the Government and public bodies bought from British suppliers, which they would be able to do once the UK is no longer bound by EU rules.