The Construction Industry Blacklists

Dear Steve, Re: Unite governance, blacklisting evidence, the restriction of my correspondence and your outstanding response On 15 September 2026, you told me that Unite’s head of IT had been asked to alter the system so that my emails could reach you. On 16 September you confirmed by WhatsApp: “I have had several emails released to me from the last couple of days which I will review, hopefully later today.” Four weeks have now passed without a substantive response. Nor have you sent even a brief email or WhatsApp message asking for more time. That does not prove what you intend, but it provides no indication that you are addressing these serious matters. I also cannot assume that you have read my subsequent published material unless you confirm that you have. I have repeatedly sent evidence and questions about blacklisting to General Secretary Sharon Graham, to you and to members of Unite’s elected Executive Council (EC) since 2021. Yet, because of Unite’s email restriction...

This article follows a documentary trail from Unite's Legal Department in 2009, through internal union inquiries, Westminster meetings, Parliamentary debates and High Court litigation, to the inquiries which followed. It raises a straightforward question: what did people inside Unite, the wider trade-union movement and prominent Labour politicians already know about allegations of trade-union complicity in blacklisting, what did they do with that information — and why has there still been no transparent public accounting of what happened? The present Unite inquiry is not simply an inquiry into whether construction workers were blacklisted. That has long been established. The issue it was tasked with examining concerns alleged conduct by trade-union officials — including collusion, the handling or suppression of blacklisting information and related official conduct. I am not suggesting that everyone named below possessed the same information or reached the same conclusions. ...