22/07/2025
CORRUPT CORBYNITE FAT CAT TRADE UNION BOSS ACCEPTED BRIBES FROM BUILDING COMPANY THAT SROLE OVER £30 MILLION OFF THE UNION
Flanagan Group, which is run by friends of Corbyn ally Len McCluskey, overcharged the Unite Union by at least £30m for a Birmingham hotel and conference centre project, a Unite report says.
The Hotel building ran massively over budget and the Serious Fraud Office last year launched an investigation into it.
McCluskey got his reward for "overruling" advice from staff and the union's lawyers in signing the construction contract with Flanagan Group in the form of private jet flights and football tickets arranged by the firm to take him to and from Ukraine and Madrid for football matches.
McCluskey lied to the BBC saying he paid for his own travel in full, and, always paid the cost of his football tickets. The Unite Union, says that the private jet flights and football tickets were "consistently organised and paid for by" the Flanagan Group and there is "no indication" McCluskey later reimbursed them.
Unite awarded Flanagan Group the contract to build the hotel with "no competitive tendering process" and despite the firm "having a history of poor performance, delays… and cost overruns on previous contracts" McCluskey and Flanagan also used non union building labour.
When Sharon Graham took over from McCluskey as Unite's general secretary, she launched a series of internal inquiries after discovering discrepancies in the union's accounts.
Unite's auditors found the union spent as much as £125m on the hotel and conference centre development, has since been valued at only £38m.
McCluskey also lied to the inquiry saying that the decision to pay Flanagan had been taken by Unite's former finance director Ed Sabisky. A Unite official however, said Sabisky was "100% against" engaging Flanagan but that he was overruled by McCluskey.
The investigation also discovered that McCluskey signed the main hotel contract himself, but he told the BBC he did not recall signing it.
