London Labour Regional Conference 2026 – Delegate Reflections (as UNISON Labour Link)

Day 1 — Opening, Workshops, and Fringes

I arrived at the London Labour Regional Conference with the UNISON Labour Link delegation (and delegation leader), ready for 1.5 days of debates, workshops, and organising. Before the start we had a delegation meeting and gathered in trade union affiliates and as a delegation. Our Chair, Maggi Ferncombe, opened the conference, setting a confident and purposeful tone for the weekend.

The keynote speaker was David Lammy MP, addressing Pride in London and the wider political moment. His speech landed well — thoughtful, outward‑looking, and rooted in Labour values.

After the keynote, the conference broke into workshops. I headed to the YIMBY Labour fringe session with Greenwich Council Leader Cllr Anthony Okereke, exploring practical approaches to housing growth and planning reform. I raised the issue of providing homes in London for key workers many of whom will never be able to afford to buy or pay market rents.

Following lunch, we reconvened for the second UNISON Labour Link delegation meeting to discuss ballots and coordination. Then it was straight into another fringe: Places for London – “Metroland or Manchesterism: How do we build the homes London needs?” with contributions from Kam Rai, Tom Copley, Peabody, and Ruth Cadbury MP. A serious, grounded discussion about London’s housing future. I also asked the question was it possible to provide the homes needed for Londoners within Greater London boundaries. The answer from some panellists appeared to be yes. Interesting...

My final workshop of the day was “Supporting Local Parties”, an important session for me given the expectation that Stratford & Bow CLP will soon be reformed *and other Newham CLPs). Good practical guidance, and a reminder of how vital strong CLPs are to Labour’s organising culture.

The day closed with further speeches and reports on elections from Conference arrangement committee. Wes Streeting MP made his now‑famous joke about standing for Mayor of London “purely to wind up Dawn Butler MP who was in the audience” and corrected himself that only London was the greatest city in the world and that it was actually Manchester and London — a line that got a good laugh.

Day 2 — Reports, Recognition, and Motions

Day 2 opened with the CAC report on election processes, followed by a moving moment: long‑serving party activists receiving recognition certificates. Maggi also gave thanks to outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer, which prompted a standing ovation from the hall.

As a UNISON Labour Link delegate and Regional Convenor, I was proud to see Yvonne Green deliver a superb speech moving Motion 10: “London Rose Network.” Clear, confident, and rooted in the lived experience of London’s public service workers.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon saw more speakers from affiliates, the Co‑operative Party, CLPs, and GLA representatives — a reminder of the breadth and depth of Labour’s movement across the capital.

Overall Reflection

Across both days, the conference felt constructive, energetic, and grounded in real‑world priorities: housing, party organisation, public services, and community leadership. As an elected UNISON delegate, it was a privilege to contribute, listen, and represent our members.

TUC Congress 2025: Day 2

The first full day of Congress (Monday) started for me with an early morning jog along Brighton beach. At 9.30am I took my seat with the UNISON delegation. 

There was a number of important debates on Fire service, Zane’s Law, Prison safety, wealth tax, tackling the far right, tackling sexism and the probation service.  There was a number of UNISON speakers.

The TUC General Secretary, Paul Nowak, gave a hard hitting address, attacking Reform MPs for voting against the Employment rights Bill and also for supporting US-style private health care. 

During lunch I attended a fringe on “How should trade unions respond to the rise of Reform UK” with Hope Not Hate and addressed by UNISON assistant General Secretary Liz Snape. The lesson for me from this fringe is that we have to listen, understand and win over members who support Reform and not just condemn them.

Ellie Reeves MP, a former trade union lawyer now Solicitor General, gave a well received address to Congress as the Labour Party Sororal delegate.

In the evening I went to my second fringe of the day. “Worker-Centric Housing - how do we build 1.5 million homes for where workers want to live? By YIMBY Alliance with panel speaker Maggi Ferncombe from UNISON. I expressed my usual concern on this topic that we will not be able to build all these homes without more public subsidy. 

Greater London Authority UNISON AGM with Sadiq Khan Mayor of London

 

On Wednesday lunchtime I was invited to attend the UNISON GLA hybrid branch AGM in City Hall as a guest speaker. Before me the Mayor Sadiq Khan spoke to members about the importance of partnership working between employers and unions. He kindly name checked me for my support with some of his early housing policies. UNISON Director of Political Strategy, Maggi Ferncombe, spoke about the impact of the Employment Rights Bill while new GLA member James Small-Edwards gave a very personal speech about how important the Labour movement family is to his politics. 

I spoke to the meeting about the importance of voting in the forthcoming UNISON NEC elections which starts later this month on April 21st. I made it clear that while I am re-standing as a candidate for the NEC, it is as the representative of Housing Association and Charities UNISON members and no-one in the GLA can vote for me in this election. Instead I am just making a plea for members to vote, regardless of who they vote for, in these really important elections. 

The UNISON NEC is made up of  67 elected lay representatives and is our "Parliament" which runs the union in-between our annual conference.  It is hugely important and for many years the turnout in elections has been really poor (8% or so of our 1.3 million members). Everyone should agree that we need to improve these participation rates. 

I had to leave straight afterwards in order to go back to the TUC Conference on Pensions (which I will post about another time) but I was very impressed with the the GLA branch for the efficient and effective running of their AGM. 

UNISON London Labour Link & Black Members

 

Many thanks to London Assembly member, James Small-Edwards, for organising an event last week at City Hall for Labour Link and Regional Black members. He gave a key note speech together with Abena Oppong-Asare MP. Other speakers included UNISON activist (and Councillor) Joseph Ogundemuren (who also helped organise the event), UNISON Director of Political Strategy, Maggi Ferncombe (and myself). 

The main theme was the new Government bill on Employment rights and how it is so important for all workers. 

Solidarity from London UNISON to New York AFSCME

This letter was sent to our sisters and brothers in New York who are members of the public service union, AFSCME, from Greater London UNISON, signed by our elected lay Convenor, Yvonne Green and our Regional Secretary, Maggi Ferncombe (with support of all Regional Council Officers). 

"Henry Garrido

Executive Director, District Council 37

AFSCME

125 Barclay Street

New York

NY10001

  

8^th June 2020

RE - Solidarity Message from UNISON Greater London

Dear Henry

We wanted to write to you on behalf of all UNISON members in London to pass on our solidarity to you and your members in AFSCME DC 37 during these difficult times. We too are the largest union in our city and as the public services union, have borne the brunt of dealing with Covid 19. The heroic efforts of your members in either battling Covid 19 on the frontline or ensuring the necessary infrastructure of New York continues running for its residents is remarkable. 

Like us, you will have lost too many members to this wretched virus and we ask that you please accept our condolences on behalf of their friends, union comrades and of course their families. 

Like you, we are still struggling to deal, day to day, with the virus under a government either too inept, too ignorant or simply incapable of recognising the daily struggle our members and city residents face. All while restrictions are being lifted too soon and like you we live in the very real fear of a second wave and the pressure this would put on already overburdened and historically underfunded public services.   

Please know that if there is any support we can provide, even if it is just friendship and solidarity, you only have to ask.

Similarly, we stand shoulder to shoulder with you on challenging systemic racism ingrained in our societies. We have been inspired by the level of activism that your city has shown and we too will encourage our members to get involved in the movement to eradicate racism. 

We believe that now is the time for long due change and whilst we, in our respective unions, have been fighting against racism, discrimination and racist values for some time, it now feels that, finally, society is ready to listen. The next few months will be difficult and painful however we believe there is finally hope.

We look forward to a time when we can correspond in better circumstances

Yours in friendship

                                               

Yvonne Greene                                                               Maggi Ferncombe

Regional Convenor                                                        Regional Secretary

UNISON - Greater London                                           UNISON - Greater London

London Labour Unions General Election mobilisation event at UNISON centre

This evening I chaired a meeting of London Labour Union organisers at the UNISON centre in Euston. It had originally been intended to be a trade union consultation on the London Mayoral manifesto for May 2020. However, following the calling of the general election, it was widened to involve organisers from the main trade union affiliates. It has all been at bit last minute so apologies to affiliates who were not invited or unable to come at short notice.

Our first speaker was Joe Cox from national "Labour Unions"who spoke about how important it was in order to preserve basic workers rights in this country to have a Labour Government elected. UNISON London Political Secretary, Steve Terry, explained how the unions in London will divide marginal seats amongst themselves in order to offer support.

UNISON regional secretary, Maggi Ferncombe, in response to questions, spoke about the guidance that all unions will be sending out to their branches on what they can do legally during the campaign to stop falling foul of the anti-trade union legislation that deliberately seeks to prevent us from supporting Labour.

Ffion Meagher from London Labour Policy gave us a briefing on the Mayoral/GLA manifesto consultation process. Once we get this general election over with we need in London to  jump straight into this Mayoral election.

Our final speaker was London Assembly member (and my long standing Newham comrade), Unmesh Desai, who was standing in for Karen Buck MP, who was stuck in Parliament voting for a new Speaker. He gave a rousing speech about how vital it was to win this election and to re-elect Sadiq.

My final comments to meeting was that many of us here will have suffered in real terms 20-30% cuts in their pay since the last Labour government in 2010. In order to increase pay and have a fair economy, we need to win this this general election.

However, the result will be decided by a couple of dozen marginal seats. Some of which we will win or lose by a handful of votes. If the 40 of us here tonight went to a marginal to campaign in one session alone, we may identify or persuade 5 or 6 voters to come out and vote Labour and win that marginal.

Imagine what we could do in 10 or 100 sessions....

Greater London UNISON AGM 2018 - Lay Executive re-elected unopposed

This was great news that the Regional Council Officers for Greater London Region were all re-elected unopposed at our AGM today. I think it shows trust and confidence by our members and branches in the lay leadership of the London Region led by Yvonne our Regional Convenor and Conroy, Fran, Liz and myself

This is the first time in 11 years that there has been no contested internal Unison elections and I hope that this means that we can move on and work together across all of London Region to improve pay, protect our members and save their jobs, terms and conditions

Picture from 2017 AGM. Me, Fran, Yvonne, Liz (acting Regional Secretary Stephanie Thomas now replaced by Maggi Ferncombe) and last but not least Conroy.