You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker.

Thanks for downloading this edition of the programme. I do hope you enjoy it. Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World

Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today is one of the most influential figures on the left of British politics. Len McCluskey doesn't sit in

Parliament. He leads the country's biggest trade union, unite, which boasts more than a million

members in a wide range of often relatively low-paid jobs across the UK economy. Len McCluskey is a

socialist, a proponent of radical change to the capitalist

economy to promote public ownership and workers' rights. He is a close political ally of Labour Party

leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has taken the party to the left and conclusively rejected Tony Blair-style centrist politics.

But now the left-wing leadership faces a real test, what to do about Brexit.

With the ruling Conservative Party crippled by division and with Prime Minister Theresa May's

Brexit deal facing the prospect of parliamentary defeat,

Labour's position carries enormous significance. Mr Corbyn has said Brexit can't be stopped.

A majority of Labour members seem to disagree and say they want a second referendum.

The stakes could hardly be higher. Could Brexit break the left apart? Well,

Len McCluskey joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you. I think nobody would argue that

Brexit is the defining issue in Britain today, perhaps the biggest decision the country has had to make for a generation

and more. Would you agree it has proved to be extraordinarily difficult to find a coherent

position in the left, the labour movement? Well, I think the reality, Stephen, is of course

two and a half years ago.

Your question was spot on.

The decision that was the British people were asked to make was a defining decision.

My union campaigned strongly, more than anybody else, more money, more resources, on the platform of remain and reform.

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