Sir Keir Starmer is set to be reconciled with Unite, one of Britain's biggest trade unions, after Len McCluskey's chosen successor looked likely to lose the election to be its next general secretary.

       Sharon Graham, a Left-wing candidate who has emphasised her desire to avoid factional politics in the Labour Party, was on Tuesday night on course to replace Mr McCluskey after his preferred candidate, Steve Turner, slipped into second place.

       Mr Turner has yet to publicly concede the election but has told supporters: "Sorry it didn't work out for us, but we did our best and had a fantastic campaign we can be very proud of."

       A tenth of ballot papers were counted on Tuesday as part of a "sampling" of the vote, and a full count will take place on Wednesday. A source in Ms Graham's camp said they were "confident Sharon is going to win it".

       Ms Graham, a full-time official at Unite, said in her campaign she was "not interested in the internal game-playing within a political party".

       Her premiership at Unite would be a reprieve for Sir Keir, who has spent the first 16 months of his leadership battling Mr McCluskey, a Corbynite, over the direction in which he is taking the Labour Party.

       Sir Keir's office had hoped Gerard Coyne, the moderate candidate, would take control of Unite and offer him the union's support. Unite is the second biggest union in the UK and Labour's biggest funder.

       But one former senior Labour strategist was pessimistic about Ms Graham taking over at Unite. "If this comes to pass then Starmer is f---ed, Labour is f---ed and Unite will inevitably be f---ed," they told The Telegraph.

       "She has no interest in Labour or Westminster politics – the largest single source of income/donations will dry up. For Unite she has an industrial approach of Millwall FC – no one likes us, we don't care."