The union boss leading crippling Tube strikes in London once paid tribute to a pro-Russian warlord branded a ‘terrorist’ by Ukraine. Eddie Dempsey, who took over as General Secretary of the RMT in March this year, led his members on strike early this week, leaving commuters stranded and costing businesses millions.
Dempsey’s past activities have come under increased scrutiny as London grinds to a halt, and his views have been branded “repugnant” by critics. In 2015 he travelled to the Donbass region of Ukraine, where he was snapped with Aleksey Mozgovoy, commander of the Russian-backed “Ghost Brigade”.
The militia was branded a terrorist organisation by Ukraine’s supreme court.
Mozgovoy’s record is notorious and violent. In 2020, he was found posthumously guilty of organising the contract killing of a family, and of crippling a ten-year-old child. He had previously ordered “any woman found sitting in a pub or café” be arrested, declaring women should “stay in the house”.
The warlord was assassinated in May 2015. A few days after his death, Dempsey – who at the time was an RMT activist – wrote in a blog post an obituary paying tribute to him, and referring to him as “charismatic”.
A decade later, under Dempsey’s command, the RMT has demanded that the United Kingdom end military aid to Ukraine.
At the RMT’s annual meeting earlier this summer, the union claimed the UK is playing “a belligerent role in international relations by supplying British-made weapons, military support, credit and billions of pounds in public funding” to Kyiv.
The revelations have provoked furious reactions from Westminster, with politicians accusing Dempsey of siding with extremists abroad while inflicting chaos on ordinary Londoners at home.
Reform MP Lee Anderson said: “We had a name for people like Dempsey during the Second World War – Fifth Columnist. My advice to him is to go and live in Russia and see how they treat an enemy of the state.”
Gareth Bacon, the Conservative Shadow Minister for London, blasted: “The RMT is currently inflicting a totally unnecessary strike on Londoners, inflicting misery on millions of people and causing hundreds of millions of pounds of economic damage.
“These repugnant, hard left views reveal a great deal about the mindset behind this anachronistic organisation. And where is the Mayor of London? What has he done to protect Londoners from these extremists? The answer, of course, is absolutely nothing. Londoners deserve much better than this.”
The RMT has repeatedly been accused this week of holding the public to ransom with crippling walkouts.
Critics say its demands are unaffordable and its leadership is out of touch with the struggles of ordinary workers who rely on public transport.
Dempsey and the RMT have been contacted for comment.
