THE man hoping to be elected as leader of Britain’s biggest trade union is paying a visit to Helensburgh as this issue of the Advertiser goes on sale.

Gerard Coyne, who is challenging Len McCluskey for the post of general secretary of Unite, spoke to the Advertiser ahead of discussions with the union’s members at HM Naval Base Clyde.

Mr Coyne is widely seen as presenting a “moderate” challenge to Mr McCluskey, who has been criticised by some within the trade union movement and the wider Labour movement for his perceived closeness to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Much closer to home, however, the purpose of Mr Coyne’s visit to the Helensburgh area was to speak to Unite members employed at Faslane and Coulport.

The union is currently heavily involved in two major issues of concern to staff at the Clyde base – one is the proposed “commercialisation” of the Ministry of Defence Guard Service (MGS), and the other the formal dispute between Unite and Babcock over workers’ rights and the proposed outsourcing of cleaning jobs and other functions.

As reported on page five, Unite members working for Babcock at Faslane and Coulport returned a 96 per cent vote in favour of strike action on the issue, and 99 per cent for industrial action short of a strike.

Mr Coyne told the Advertiser: “Our position, in terms of the general principle of outsourcing and its impact on government contracts, is that we would prefer to see activities kept in-house as much as possible.

“Fragmenting the workforce is not good for employees in terms of the provision of services and, in this case in particular, overall security.

“One of the things that most concerns me is that the security issues seem to be being forgotten.

“On the commercialisation of the MGS, in my view it seems illogical when there is a huge security risk – much higher than in other areas of industry – to be suggesting outsourcing your guards.

“Sadly I see that as part of the galloping rush towards privatisation which doesn’t look at the overall picture.

“I understand there’s no bottomless pit of cash, but there are key areas of government activity which in my view should not be commercialised.

“You wouldn’t outsource the armed services and create a militia army. There are areas of national defence where there’s no doubt in terms of the security of the nation, the quality of the work and the commitment of the workforce, that outsourcing should not be considered.

“Some harsh lessons have already been learned about that in, for example, the prison service, and my view is you shouldn’t play with fire when it comes to these strategically important facilities.”

Mr Coyne is standing on a platform of “cleaning up” Unite – a thinly-veiled attack on Mr McCluskey, who has defended Jeremy Corbyn’s stance on Trident and nuclear weapons and has stated he is open to the idea of the Royal Navy’s submarines having no nuclear weapons.

Mr Coyne said: “The main thrust of my campaign is about returning Unite’s focus to being a trade union first and foremost, getting on with protecting our members’ interests in the workplace

“We have to move away from Westminster politics and acting as the puppet-master for the leader of the Labour Party and concentrate on supporting our members wherever they work.”