Kirklees candidate for top union role in the country still suspended from his job

A leading candidate for one of the biggest union roles in the country remains suspended from his job.

Paul Holmes was suspended as secretary of the Kirklees branch of Unison in November last year. The reason has never been made public.

This week Kirklees Council confirmed Mr Holmes’s ongoing suspension from his job with the authority.

Unison has not responded to multiple requests to comment on the issue.

No details have emerged about the investigation and none of the individuals involved have spoken publicly about it.

However Mr Holmes’s lengthy suspension has not prevented him from standing as a candidate for the position of general secretary of Unison, which is Europe’s largest public service union with more than 1.3 million members.

Following inquiries by the Local Democracy Reporting Service a spokesman for Kirklees Council said Mr Holmes “remains under suspension with the investigation still ongoing”.

That investigation was described as “serious and confidential” by the council’s chief executive, Jacqui Gedman, in an email to councillors last year.

One Unison insider commented: “I can’t understand how the national election is going on with Paul Holmes as a candidate when the ‘Unison Three’ have, it would seem, not been cleared.”

The union suspended Mr Holmes along with Kirklees branch chairman Nick Ruff and assistant branch secretary Cath Kinder.

Mr Holmes, a council employee, was also suspended by the authority.

The Kirklees branch was placed under the supervision of regional officers Natalie Ratcliffe and Ashley Harper.

The suspensions came just a fortnight after Unison members among Huddersfield's bin workers held a consultative ballot on industrial action.

That ballot followed a repeat of claims of victimisation including bullying, racism and “heavy-handed” management.

Veteran socialist Mr Holmes had been at the heart of discussions with the council over similar claims that had led to threats of industrial action 18 months previously.

On hearing that Kirklees Unison had been placed under regional supervision senior Labour councillor Peter McBride wrote: “So there is a Father Christmas”.

Cllr McBride, who is deputy council leader, later said his comments “were of a flippant nature”.

In September the Socialist Worker reported that Mr Holmes had won the support of more than 100 Unison branches as well as two regions and the local government service group.

He is aiming to take over from Dave Prentis, who will step down at the end of the year.

Mr Prentis is seen as a Labour right-winger. Mr Holmes is an old school left-winger, a 40-year veteran of the Labour Party  and branch secretary in Kirklees for three decades.

He is being promoted as a working-class, grassroots candidate.

And he has already picked up a significant amount of support, including the backing of former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and acclaimed filmmaker Ken Loach.

When he stood for general secretary in 2010 Mr Holmes came last in the poll, garnering just 28,114 votes (13 per cent) against the 145,351 votes polled by Mr Prentis.