SARAH VINE: The revolting bin chaos in Birmingham is a nationwide shame – and it tells us precisely who truly holds the ability in Starmer’s Britain

Aerial images of Unite’s regional office in Birmingham show a pristine bin store, surrounded by high walls, spotless and empty of rubbish. It’s a stark contrast to much of the rest of the city, which is piled high with rotting garbage and reportedly infested with rats the size of cats.

It’s also a perfect metaphor for this supposed ‘government of the people’ and for the self-serving Labour politicians responsible for this disgraceful state of affairs.

Insulated from the repercussions of their venality and incompetence, it is not they who have to suffer the stench of decomposing food and the filth and faeces that accompanies an influx of vermin. Not their children who have to spend their Easter holidays dodging syringes and dog poo in their local park.

Angela Rayner, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (and living proof that having a long fancy job title is not necessarily commensurate with talent), certainly doesn’t have to worry about such things now that she has been offered a fully serviced Grace and Favour apartment in Admiralty Arch.

Nor does the situation seem to be unduly troubling for her comrade-in-arms, Liam Byrne, MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North.

Last month, as residents were already fighting running battles with the rats – dubbed ‘the squeaky blinders’ – and wading through more than 21,000 tons of putrid waste, Mr Byrne was on a ‘fact-finding’ Parliamentary jolly in Japan. He even had the cheek to extend his stay for a ‘personal holiday’.

Still, at least Tahir Ali, MP for neighbouring Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley, has been busy standing up for the people. Just a shame it’s the people of Mirpur, Kashmir, on whose behalf he has been vigorously campaigning for a new airport in the region.

Like their union paymasters, whose own backyard is so pristine you could practically eat your lunch off it, it’s a case of ‘I’m all right, Jack’, and the rest of you can fend for yourselves.

Birmingham’s bin chaos is a perfect metaphor for this supposed ‘government of the people’ and for the self-serving Labour politicians responsible for this disgraceful state of affairs

But ‘twas ever thus. The last time a Labour government of this ilk was in power, in the Seventies, the country had all the same problems. The common denominator: weak-minded ministers in thrall to the unions; the outcome: crippling strikes and general misery for ordinary voters.

For all the talk of workers’ rights and solidarity with ordinary folk, the policies pursued only ever seemed to benefit a narrow few, and rarely those who worked the hardest or contributed the most. No wonder there was a massive brain drain; anyone who could get out, did, much like the exodus of successful businessmen and millionaires today.

Perhaps that’s why I’ve always regarded Labour’s grandstanding pronouncements and wild promises with deep cynicism. I was very young at the time, of course, but I remember my father and his mates, who worked at the Round Oak steelworks in Brierley Hill (on the outskirts of Brum, as it happens) striking up the following ditty after a few beers to the tune of the Red Flag, anthem of the Labour Party: ‘The working class/can kiss my arse/I’ve got a/foreman’s job at last.’

I wonder if Rayner hums the same tune to herself as she potters around her taxpayer-funded perch in SW1 in her lovely new clothes paid for by Lord Alli.

The sad truth is that the current situation is horrible and shocking and makes us look like a Third World country (The New York Times, NBC News and CNN have all weighed in on Birmingham’s bin problem); but it’s also no less than one would expect from a government whose principles and policies are still rooted in a time when George and Mildred were on the telly and the Bay City Rollers were in the charts.

As for the unions themselves, it’s an example of the ‘jobs for the boys’ approach that has always been the hallmark of trade unions. Instead of seeing employers – whether in the public or private sector – as jobs providers for their members, they see them as their sworn enemies.

They have no regard for the harsh realities of running a business or organisation. For people like Sharon Graham, leader of Unite, it’s not about finding a reasonable solution that works for everyone, it’s about hard-line protectionism. Her philosophy, as Keir Starmer is discovering to his dismay, is one of ‘no surrender’, regardless of the suffering caused.

After all, what exactly is a ‘Waste Recycling and Collection Officer’ (WRCO), the role which the council wants to do away with?

We’re told it’s a ‘supervisory’ role, which makes it sound a bit like one of those other non-job jobs that local authorities seem to be so keen on, such as ‘skate park attendant’ or ‘composting supervisor’. It was also only introduced in 2018, in response to earlier strike action. Will these WRCOs really be missed – especially since the council had offered to employ them elsewhere?

Angela Rayner has basically handed Labour’s backside to the unions

But then this dispute is not really about money, or jobs – or even, for that matter, bins. It’s about who is really running Britain: Keir Starmer – or Graham and her colleagues at Unite.

Looking at the mess in Birmingham, the answer is all too clear. Not to put too fine a point on it, Rayner has basically handed Labour’s backside to the unions. Thanks to her proposed labour reforms – promising to repeal anti-strike laws, making it much harder to fire poor workers, giving people full employment rights from day one and a raft of other measures currently going through Parliament – the Government couldn’t stand up to them even if it wanted to.

Graham is now the most powerful unelected politician in Britain and Starmer has little or no leverage when it comes to disputes such as these, of which there will no doubt be many more to come. Rayner can bleat all she likes about ‘the people of Birmingham’ being her ‘first priority’ and how ‘the backlog must be dealt with quickly to address public health risks’, but she more than anyone should know her entreaties will fall on deaf ears.

After all, she used to be a Union rep herself, as she never tires of reminding us. She knows the drill: the more misery strike action causes for ordinary people, the more effective it is in getting employers to cave in. It’s just how it works – which is why, for all their faults, the Conservatives did their best to rein in the unions.

The irony of ‘our Ange’ finally getting a taste of her own medicine would be delicious were it not for the stench of rotting rubbish hanging over it.

The Government has nowhere to go over this. Years of mismanagement have left the Labour-led council bankrupt – and now both its workers and residents are paying a heavy price. And there are plenty of other councils in similar situations. Pretty soon this pattern will begin to repeat itself – and the whole country will end up one big, stinking mess.

Personally, I have a lot of time for bin men. They do a difficult, dirty job, and they deserve to be properly paid for it. But there’s a difference between asking for what’s fair and reasonable and putting the health and wellbeing of an entire community at risk – a community which itself has not done anything wrong. It’s shameful behaviour, and if those involved had even a shred of integrity, they would reach a solution. Instead, they would rather ruin the lives of thousands of ordinary people for the sake of their own political power games.