Bolton: Labour Party expels Unison president Andrea Egan

Unison’s Andrea Egan, who has been active member of the party for more than a decade and became union president last June, says she was shocked last week to receive a letter saying her membership had been terminated.

A leter sent to Egan on November 15 from the Labour party disputes team said that Egan's membership had been terminated because she shared two posts on social media from the Marxist group Socialist Appeal. 

Last year, the Labour party condemned Socialist Appeal - a newspaper made up of Marxist members within the Labour party - as "not compatible with Labour's rules or our aims and values." 

The organisation has since been officially banned from the party. However, Ms Egan first shared one their posts before this ban was announced. 

Speaking to the Bolton News, the lifelong socialist and trade union campaigner said that she believes this sends out a deeply troubling message to her union’s millions of members.

Ms Egan said: “I’ve said publicly that the Labour Party now has got to decide, whose side are you on?

“Are you on the side of the workers or are you on the side of the bosses?”

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer (Image: PA)

She added: “I’ve stayed in Labour and I’ve encouraged others to stay in and make sure they’re delivering for working class people, how is this now going to look?

“How can you justify attacking a fighting socialist with the history I’ve got?

“What message does that send when you see a working class women fighting for equality and for better public services and you expel her?”

Ms Egan has been a member of Unison for many years (Image: Newsquest)

Ms Egan’s membership was terminated for sharing two articles from the left-wing group Socialist Appeal on social media, one of which she shared on July 16 2021 about the group’s own potential proscription.

She had captioned the story with the comment ‘who’s next?’ referering to her fears that other left-wing groups could also be thrown out of the party.

The next article, published on August 13 last year, focused on Ms Egan’s election to Unison’s ruling body.

The group itself has since been officially banned by Labour, but at the time was still in the party.  

Her expulsion means that Ms Egan has also lost her positions in her local party in Bolton North East.

She said: “It isn’t a coincidence that a disconnect has started to open up between ordinary working class members and the party leadership nationally.”

She added: “There’s two elements to this, one is I’m a strong activist, I’m a socialist and I make no apologies for that so its an attack aimed at me personally.

“But also politically, the union is now demonstrating that we are a fighting, organising union so its aimed at all of us.”

The Bolton campaigner believes that recent strike action by the RMT union and the example given by its leader Mick Lynch shows the way that unions can take on the Conservative government, but fears her treatment by Labour may show that the party will not support them in doing so.

She also fears that this could put union members off from supporting or becoming members of the party.

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Ms Egan said: “My concern is given we’re already struggling to get new members to pay for the Labour link, this is going to make it even more difficult to convince them.”

She said: “I’ve spoken to our general secretary and we’re going to fight this, so we’re looking this week at the route that Unison will take.”

North West Labour Party has been approached for comment.