A company that oversaw health and safety on a £50 million construction project for Britain’s most powerful trade union was led by a man jailed for a knife attack, it can be disclosed.

Martin Grant, 33, from Liverpool, received a ten-year sentence in 2015 after creeping up on a man and slashing his face and fingers with a Stanley knife. The wounds required 90 stitches.

After Grant left prison in 2019 he was swiftly appointed managing director of Safety Support Consultants (SSC), a company owned by the son of Joe Anderson, the mayor of Liverpool.

The company was awarded a contract to act as health and safety adviser during the construction in Birmingham of a conference centre, hotel and regional offices for the Unite union.

Senior members of Unite were told in 2012 that the cost of the development would be £7 million but it has since been estimated that the bill will be about £50 million, a figure the union disputes. The work was completed last year.

The lead contractor was the Flanagan Group, a Liverpool builder run by an associate of Len McCluskey, the union’s general secretary. He described the company in 2014 as “a working-class family who have made good”.


Seems like the ideal candidate for health and safety. ;)


There is much more to the story of course with Mr McCluskey determined to prove he is the rightful heir to T Dan Smith and Derek Hatton, the latter having a finger in this particular pie too.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

A company that oversaw health and safety on a £50 million construction project for Britain’s most powerful trade union was led by a man jailed for a knife attack, it can be disclosed.

Martin Grant, 33, from Liverpool, received a ten-year sentence in 2015 after creeping up on a man and slashing his face and fingers with a Stanley knife. The wounds required 90 stitches.

After Grant left prison in 2019 he was swiftly appointed managing director of Safety Support Consultants (SSC), a company owned by the son of Joe Anderson, the mayor of Liverpool.

The company was awarded a contract to act as health and safety adviser during the construction in Birmingham of a conference centre, hotel and regional offices for the Unite union.

Senior members of Unite were told in 2012 that the cost of the development would be £7 million but it has since been estimated that the bill will be about £50 million, a figure the union disputes. The work was completed last year.

The lead contractor was the Flanagan Group, a Liverpool builder run by an associate of Len McCluskey, the union’s general secretary. He described the company in 2014 as “a working-class family who have made good”.


Seems like the ideal candidate for health and safety. ;)


There is much more to the story of course with Mr McCluskey determined to prove he is the rightful heir to T Dan Smith and Derek Hatton, the latter having a finger in this particular pie too.

Is there any leading preaching socialist, who is not a hypocritical money-making parody?

What’s the accusation here? I can’t see where McCluskey is making any money from this, perhaps you can enlighten us though?

Quoted from ska face

What’s the accusation here? I can’t see where McCluskey is making any money from this, perhaps you can enlighten us though?

Couldn't the same be said about the dodgy-looking PPE/covid-19 deals for friends of ministers and Tory party donors?

It'll be interesting to see if the police investigation into Joe Anderson and Derek Hatton leads anywhere. I know Unite have been Anderson backers, but I didn't realise until now that there is a family business relationship too.

I don’t know, hence why I asked.

Just couldn’t follow the logic as to how this bloke being given a job equates to McCluskey profiteering from the scheme?

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

A company that oversaw health and safety on a £50 million construction project for Britain’s most powerful trade union was led by a man jailed for a knife attack, it can be disclosed.

Martin Grant, 33, from Liverpool, received a ten-year sentence in 2015 after creeping up on a man and slashing his face and fingers with a Stanley knife. The wounds required 90 stitches.

After Grant left prison in 2019 he was swiftly appointed managing director of Safety Support Consultants (SSC), a company owned by the son of Joe Anderson, the mayor of Liverpool.

The company was awarded a contract to act as health and safety adviser during the construction in Birmingham of a conference centre, hotel and regional offices for the Unite union.

Senior members of Unite were told in 2012 that the cost of the development would be £7 million but it has since been estimated that the bill will be about £50 million, a figure the union disputes. The work was completed last year.

The lead contractor was the Flanagan Group, a Liverpool builder run by an associate of Len McCluskey, the union’s general secretary. He described the company in 2014 as “a working-class family who have made good”.


Seems like the ideal candidate for health and safety. ;)


There is much more to the story of course with Mr McCluskey determined to prove he is the rightful heir to T Dan Smith and Derek Hatton, the latter having a finger in this particular pie too.

Please explain the accusation ??

It’s one of those stories meant to show guilt just by someone being in the same story. A bit like implying Hansel and Gretl were up to no good.

The Union which McCluskey is head of, is disputing the bill. If he had that much influence and was up to no good they wouldn’t be disputing it.

PS obviously Tory central office is doing its best to distract attention from Tory government scandals by trying to indulge in a bit of whataboutism.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

PS obviously Tory central office is doing its best to distract attention from Tory government scandals by trying to indulge in a bit of whataboutism.

They’d never do that surely? They’re good honest people, that can’t be what they’re up to...🤔

Quoted from Stadium

Please explain the accusation ??

What accusation? That McCluskey is cut from the same cloth as Anderson and co and the Flanagan family?  The muckrakers have only just started digging. That's how it started with T Dan Smith and Poulson, drip feed.

The H&S story is just a lovely irony.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13763932/unite-union-multi-million-pound-contracts/


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/unite-has-links-to-companies-investigated-for-bribery-69sf6gx55

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

What accusation? That McCluskey is cut from the same cloth as Anderson and co and the Flanagan family?  The muckrakers have only just started digging. That's how it started with T Dan Smith and Poulson, drip feed.

The H&S story is just a lovely irony.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13763932/unite-union-multi-million-pound-contracts/


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/unite-has-links-to-companies-investigated-for-bribery-69sf6gx55

Ah ok,thanks.
Nothing at all then.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

A company that oversaw health and safety on a £50 million construction project for Britain’s most powerful trade union was led by a man jailed for a knife attack, it can be disclosed.

Martin Grant, 33, from Liverpool, received a ten-year sentence in 2015 after creeping up on a man and slashing his face and fingers with a Stanley knife. The wounds required 90 stitches.

After Grant left prison in 2019 he was swiftly appointed managing director of Safety Support Consultants (SSC), a company owned by the son of Joe Anderson, the mayor of Liverpool.

The company was awarded a contract to act as health and safety adviser during the construction in Birmingham of a conference centre, hotel and regional offices for the Unite union.

Senior members of Unite were told in 2012 that the cost of the development would be £7 million but it has since been estimated that the bill will be about £50 million, a figure the union disputes. The work was completed last year.

The lead contractor was the Flanagan Group, a Liverpool builder run by an associate of Len McCluskey, the union’s general secretary. He described the company in 2014 as “a working-class family who have made good”.


Seems like the ideal candidate for health and safety. ;)


There is much more to the story of course with Mr McCluskey determined to prove he is the rightful heir to T Dan Smith and Derek Hatton, the latter having a finger in this particular pie too.

My favourite story this week (at least so far) about caring sharing socialists is the story in the Mail* about the Blairs, or the Blair Rich Project as they called it.

Euan Blair is now worth more than his old man, something like 73 million or some such. Tony continues to rake it in from the private sector (don't you just love capitalism) and then we have the income from his wife the barrister. And the daughter, also of course, a barrister.

They even beat the millionaires in the labour front bench!

If you are going to enjoy all the trappings of wealth, shouldn't you be honest and say socialism will not cut it?

*Other publications of your choice are available.

Aren’t you in your 70’s? It astounds me that someone could get to that age and still be as painfully ignorant as you are.

What was it about Blair that most confirmed his socialist credentials for you? Was it removing clause 4 from the Labour Party constitution (the bit about common ownership & redistribution)? Was it the deal he made with Murdoch in 1997? Was it his ongoing work with murderous dictatorships? Or was it the 4 years he spent trashing an actual socialist Labour leader?

Amazing that you continue to spend your time on here trying to tell people what’s what. Clueless.  

Or was it when he won a general election?

I'm just trying to work out why having a daughter and a wife who are barristers is a problem.

Blair wasn’t a socialist he did have some good points but cannot think of the other one.

Blair was barely a social democrat, let alone a socialist.

Trying to chuck dirt at union bosses isn't exactly a new thing. McCluskey is probably a bit of a excrement, but I'd be amazed if it turned out he was a corrupt excrement. They've had many years to dig up dirt and they'd almost certainly have found something before now if it existed. But yes, it sounds like dead cat distraction to try and gee up their support. Even the truest of true blue believers must surely be able to see what an utter bollox up of everything this government is making? Or even some of them, at the very least.

Blair a socialist?

Next you'll be saying Stalin was a liberal.

The sad thing is that anyone who even resembles a socialist and runs for Prime Minister in this country, is absolutely destroyed by the right wing media, and people fall for the scare stories every time. You can't trust a socialist with the economy they will yell you. Only the Tories know about money matters, while they systematically plunder all the wealth for themselves and their mates.

The Mail telling us that Blair and his family have made a bundle is about as relevant as their obsession with Lady Di.

Some people don't seem to be getting the point about Blair.

Yes he is hated by people further on the left of the spectrum for not being pure enough, but nonetheless he was the leader of the Labour party which cloaked him in socialist credentials whilst he was intent on trousering millions.  

I picked Blair because he is in today's papers about his obscene wealth, but I could have chosen half the Labour front bench; I could have argued the case for any number of socialists, a lot of champagne socialists who preach one thing to the masses (say their Union membership for example) whilst enjoying the trappings of great wealth whilst making sure they pay as least tax as possible.

It is just stinking hypocrisy which wafts through the socialist, or shall we say the left of the political spectrum.

Blair, the man who famously said “ the 21st century will not be about the battle between capitalism and socialism”, and removed the entire party’s commitment to socialism...was cloaked in socialist credentials.

I honestly cannot comprehend that someone like you is trusted with a vote.

It seems pretty straightforward really.

The Labour party is the foremost left of centre alternative for government in this country.

Tony Blair was the leader of said party.

All those elections slogans, all those pious words and electioneering soundbites whilst decrying those rich evil tories, when all the time the leader of the Labour party wanted to wallow in capitalism and feather his own nest.

Like I say, hypocrites aplenty on the left spectrum of British politics.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

It seems pretty straightforward really.


Like I say, hypocrites aplenty on the left spectrum of British politics.

I think the user RonRafferty  has touched on this and other academics  as well who Ive read that are non affiliated to politics. In politics people on the left and right of the political divide will never get it spot on. Its why its good to never immerse yourself too much in one ideology. Right and left both have their pros and cons if taken to the extreme.

Thank God we live in a democracy for example and aren't brainwashed or forced to adhere to the ideals of that region. The Taliban when it had control of  large swatches of Afghanistan  springs to mind for one .

Edit doing more research on my family tree I wrongly assumed my mum due to being a thoroughbred Latino from Spain that she had some Arab in her due to the Moors colonising Spain for around 800 years. Turns out after reading research less than 4% of Spanish people have Arab in them. Learn something new everyday  .