UNITE hailed the £400 million in pay the union has secured for members since Sharon Graham’s election as general secretary ahead of its 2023 conference in Brighton this week.

The union reported that it had won 81 per cent of the 460 disputes resolved since August 2021, with an average wage boost for workers of between £3,000 and £4,000.

The biggest was in July last year, when staff at Shetland’s Lerwick Port Authority secured a 34 per cent rise.