Labour’s main union backer says it will cut political funding

Exclusive: Sharon Graham, Unite's boss, believes money would be better spent on union campaigns

• Unite will use brains as well as brawn' to fight bad employers, says boss

Labour's biggest funder, Unite, will cut political donations to the party and divert the money to union campaigns, its new general secretary, Sharon Graham, has warned.

In a move that could blow a hole in Keir Starmer's general election war chest, Graham said that while Unite would still pay 1m in affiliation fees to Labour, there's a lot of other money that we use from our political fund where, actually, I'm not sure we're getting the best value for it".