Before her election as General Secretary, Sharon Graham promised to investigate all allegations of corruption made against the previous leadership.

Once elected, she commissioned an independent valuation of the Birmingham Hotel project. This showed that, despite the building costing over £110 million, it was only worth £35 million.

In April 2022, South Wales Police raided Unite HQ as part of an investigation into Affiliated Services Contracts run by a senior official.

The General Secretary commissioned five independent investigations into Birmingham and Affiliated Services. Including an inquiry into Birmingham costs by construction barrister Martin Bowdery KC; an independent legal report into potential criminality; forensic accounting reports by Grant Thornton; and a legal report into failures with Unite’s governance by Bark & Co. 

She also instructed a full re-audit of Unite’s 2021 accounts by BDO. The auditor has now made an initial report, which found a “pervasive fraud environment” existed under the previous leadership. This has led to an impairment (write-down) of £66 million on Unite’s accounts, which will be released by BDO in the coming weeks. 

Due to ongoing police enquiries, these reports cannot yet be published in full. 

However, Unite is publishing a redacted Interim Report to share as much information as possible with our members. 

Please find on this web page: 

For any questions please write to: birminghaminquiry@unitetheunion.org

Unite members can also call the Hotline phone number: 08085015098 (or +448085015098)

Explanatory video https://youtu.be/xvOxh9AdrXk