Exclusive: Former Unite Leadership Contender Steve Turner Launches Bid To Be Labour MP
A left-winger who ran to be leader of the powerful Unite union has launched a bid to become a Labour MP, HuffPost UK can reveal.
Steve Turner wants to succeed Harriet Harman as the MP for Camberwell and Peckham in south London.
Turner is currently assistant general secretary at Unite, the UK’s second largest union and a major financial backer of the Labour party.
He ran to be the union’s general secretary last year but lost out to Sharon Graham.
Harman announced at the end of last year that she was standing down after 40 years in parliament, teeing up what promises to be a fierce contest to be Labour’s candidate at the next election.
Turner told HuffPost UK that the constituency was his “home turf” and that he had built up “broad support” across the trade union movement.
“I’ve been asked whether I would be interested in running and absolutely I would be,” he said.
“I started work at Camberwell garage as a 19-year-old bus conductor. It’s where I started my life in the union and it changed my life and it led me to where I am now.
“I think I’ve got a lot to offer politically — making a real difference not just to the people of Peckham but on a wider stage to build the newer, greener economy that we need, and to deal with the cost of living crisis, the housing crisis, the social care crisis — all of those big challenges that we have got in front of us now.”
Turner ran against Graham and Gerard Coyne in the race to succeed Len McCluskey as Unite boss.
Graham won with 38 per cent of the vote, while Turner received 34 per cent and Coyne 28 per cent.
Turner sought to emphasise his connections within Labour and the role he had played in forming key policy under Jeremy Corbyn, including the party’s green new deal.
“I’m pretty well respected for the role that I’ve played and the way in which I conduct myself to try and get things done for ordinary working people,” he said.
“I deal with Tory secretaries of state all the time — from Rishi Sunak as chancellor to Kwasi Kwarteng as business secretary and Grant Shapps at transport.
“You can be in permanent opposition for as long as you like, but you won’t make a difference.
“You’ve got to be in government to do that.”
Turner was initially regarded as the heir apparent to McCluskey before Graham began to emerge as the frontrunner towards the end of the Unite contest.
During the race, Turner urged Starmer not to ditch his support for the leftwing policies he said he would honour in his campaign to replace Corbyn as Labour leader.
He told the Observer last year that Starmer “stood on a programme that saw trade union members give him their vote”.
“He can’t just bin this because Peter Mandelson doesn’t like it. To do so is to insult those who put their trust in him, and that’s not a great place for a leader to be.”
Harman is one of a number of senior Labour MPs to announce that they will be standing down at the next election. Others include Margaret Hodge, Barry Sheerman and Ben Bradshaw.
Ideological tensions between the left and the moderate wing of the party led by Starmer are likely to play out with the selection of new candidates.
Moderates see selections as an opportunity to fill parliament with candidates more supportive of Starmer’s leadership than the last intake of MPs in 2019.
One Labour insider suggested Turner’s pitch may not be well received by the leadership.
“The prospect of Steve Turner running for parliament is so against the extreme factional thinking at the top to the Labour party that I’m sure they are drinking cold sick in party HQ,” they said.
