Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn was warned yesterday not to risk defence jobs with his Trident plans as he suffered another resignation from his frontbench team.
Sir Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB, said unions would not go “quietly into the night” if Mr Corbyn tried to change party policy on renewing the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
His shot across the bow came as Newcastle MP Catherine McKinnell quit her post as shadow attorney general, citing concerns Labour is travelling down an “increasingly negative path”.
Mr Corbyn, who quickly replaced her with Hull MP Karl Turner, has said Labour activists will be given a “big say” in whether the party continues to back Trident renewal.
He has indicated he is considering giving members a vote on the divisive issue.
The Islington North MP, who is fiercely opposed to replacing Trident, said: “I want members to have a big say in it.
“Whether that comes as a vote of individual members or a vote of conference, that will be decided. I haven’t made up my mind on that.”
Sir Paul responded with a warning that unions would fight any attempt to adopt a unilateralist policy on Trident.
He pointed to the tens of thousands of jobs at around 50 sites in the UK dependent on defence contracts.
“We are going to ask those people what they think about the Labour party effectively shutting down their jobs,” he added.
“There is a process and there are rules and if anybody thinks that unions like the GMB are going to go quietly into the night while tens of thousands of our members’ jobs are literally swannied away by rhetoric then they have got another shock coming.”
Mr Corbyn, whose Twitter account was hacked on Sunday, is struggling to draw a line under last week’s so-called revenge reshuffle, which he dubbed a mere “adjustment”.
Over the weekend three shadow cabinet members – shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith, shadow education secretary Lucy Powell and shadow justice secretary Lord Falconer – all refused to rule out quitting if Labour drops its Trident backing.
The issue was brought into focus by the replacement of pro-Trident Maria Eagle with Emily Thornberry, who supports Mr Corbyn’s stance, as shadow defence secretary.
Meanwhile, shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray – Labour’s only MP in Scotland – has joined criticism of shadow chancellor John McDonnell for branding the Blairite Progress group a “narrow right-wing clique”.
He said: “I think some people in the shadow cabinet, including the shadow chancellor, should really ramp down the rhetoric a little bit.”