Angela Rayner has had her membership of a major trade union suspended in a row over the Birmingham bin strikes. Unite, which is Labour’s biggest union supporter, also overwhelmingly backed re-examining its relationship with Sir Keir Starmer‘s party.

The move follows an emergency motion passed at the union’s policy conference in Brighton today. General secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite is crystal clear it will call out bad employers regardless of the colour of their rosette. Angela Rayner has had every opportunity to intervene and resolve this dispute but has instead backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts.

Angela Rayner

Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner (Image: Getty)

“The disgraceful actions of the government and a so-called Labour council, is essentially fire and rehire and makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act promises.

“People up and down the country are asking whose side is the Labour government on and coming up with the answer not workers.

It comes as rubbish has been piling up across Birmingham since bin workers walked out around six months ago in a bitter dispute over pay.

The motion, which was voted on by 800 delegates, condemned Labour-run Birmingham City Council for “its threat to effectively fire and rehire, on pain of redundancy, the Unite Birmingham bin workers”.

Birmingham bin strikes

The Birmingham bin strikes has surpassed the six-month mark (Image: Getty)

It also blasted the Government for its “support to the council and the commissioners, originally appointed by the Tories and maintained by Labour”.

Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Ms Rayner, Birmingham Council leader John Cotton and other Labour councillors have been suspended for “bringing the union into disrepute”.

This will be followed by an investigation with a “view to expelling them from the union.”

Ms Rayner has been contacted for comment.