Potential next Unite General Secretary Howard Beckett told the Socialist Party conference that "if you act like a tory' before an election you should be 'treated like a tory' by Unite.

I'm sure that so militant a socialist has always applied that test to himself.

Before becoming Unite's top legal voice, Howard ran a high street solicitors firm on Merseyside called BBH solicitors. Things didn't always go well for BBH but they kept high standards of integrity.

There were other occasional hiccups at BBH solicitors. That's regulatory failure you must expect under late capitalism.

But things took a positive turn for Howard in 2011/12. His solicitors firm, BBH was bought for £2.69 million, despite only having some 106k in assets and invoices outstanding on the books.
The rest of the big money buy was for the acquisition of goodwill.

Who was buying themselves two and a half million pounds of Goodwill. A larger Solicitors firm called Thompsons. You might know them if you're a union member.

Thompson's are the Solicitors for Unite the Union and have been for years. They're a very professional union law firm and Unite is a big customer who they work very hard for and represent well. https://www.thompsonstradeunion.law/news/news-releases/accident-at-work-news/unite-member-gets-substantial-compensation-for-injury-caused-by-unsafe-work-practices