Highly skilled negotiator is motivated by ‘simple beliefs’ that unions exist to fight bad employers
Sharon Graham’s victory to replace Len McCluskey and become the first woman to lead Unite, one of Britain’s most powerful trade unions, may have come as a surprise to many. But not to those who know her determination and fearlessness.
Some say Graham, 51, was written off because she was a woman. Her refusal to bow to pressure to stand down to make way for a leftwing unity candidate, Steve Turner, who was judged most likely to ensure the defeat of the Keir Starmer-supporting Gerard Coyne, earned her “disgraceful” online opprobrium, some of which was unquestionably misogynistic.