The boss of a union that donated to Labour posed with a communist flag whilst chanting Russian slogans in occupied Ukraine alongside a convicted Russian warlord
Eddie (Image: Youtube / Луганский обком КПУ Луганский ОК КПУ)
The boss of a Union which donated money to the Labour Party once posed with the communist flag whilst chanting Russian slogans in occupied Ukraine. Eddie Dempsey, who runs the powerful RMT union, was filmed chanting “United we are invincible” in the Donbas region which was occupied by the Russian army a year earlier.
Posing in front of a statue of Communist despot, Lenin, Mr Dempsey posed with the late-Russian Warlord, Aleksey Mozgovoy, a man who posthumously found guilty in 2020 for murder, and the crippling of a 10-year-old child. The visit took place before Mr Dempsey became leader of the RMT, a union which has donated large sums to Labour.
Critics have slammed the revelations, with Richard Holden, the shadow transport secretary calling it “vile” to see them “parroting pro-Putin chants in sovereign Ukraine“. He added that the Labour “was too weak to stand up to their union paymasters. They lack the backbone to stand up for the public, choosing instead to appease militant leadership figures while families pick up the bill.”
Mr Dempsey is not a member of the Labour Party, and the RMT is not affiliated with the party. The revelations, first reported in the Telegraph, attracted damning condemation from critics, but the union boss hung up the phone when contacted by the Daily Express. Instead a spokesman for the RMT said that he was a “lifelong anti-fascist with an extensive track record of fighting racism in Britain and abroad”, regarding the 2015 event at which the chanting took place.
They added: “His decision to go on a humanitarian convoy to Ukraine was motivated by the appalling House of Trade Unions fire in 2014, in which at least 42 people were killed, following clashes with far right Ukrainian nationalists. Mr Dempsey has at no time supported Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine and has repeatedly called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.”
But the Tories accused Labour of handing “billions” to transport bosses, after Labour handed them a paydeal to avert the latest round of militant strikes by the hard-left union. Mr Holden said the pay deal came despite Brits facing “higher fares, fewer services and repeated disruption”.
A Labour Party spokesman said that the Government’s support for Ukraine was “unequivocal”. Sir Keir Starmer himself recently committed to putting boots on the ground to enforce any forthcoming peace deal, in a display of comradeship with the war-torn country who have been fighting off Russia’s illegal invasion for years.
They added: “The people of Ukraine will always have our support, particularly in the face of Russia’s barbaric and illegal invasion.”
On allegations of poor service quality for UK rail passengers, the spokesman added: “Perhaps Richard Holden covered his ears though this week. He doesn’t appear to realise that his former Cabinet colleagues have exposed that it was he – and his failed Tory government – that broke our public services.”
They said that Mr Holden could not “gloss over his pathetic record in office”.
