Tuesday 21 June 2022 10:28 PM As millions Britons suffer in rail strike, 25 Left-wing MPs defy their party by ... trends now
The Labour Party was in chaos over crippling rail strikes last night.
As militant unions caused travel misery for millions, Keir Starmer faced a mutiny by his own MPs.
At least 25 of them ignored disciplinary warnings and joined the picket lines even as their constituents were struggling to get to work.
And senior figures, including Sir Keir’s own deputy Angela Rayner, backed the RMT union in its bid to bring the country to its knees.
The Labour leader was accused of going into ‘hiding’ after he refused to comment on the biggest industrial dispute for 30 years.
Boris Johnson said the strike was ‘wrong and unnecessary’ and called for a return to negotiations. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps accused Labour and the unions of ‘taking us back to the bad old days’ of the 1970s.
He added: ‘I pity poor Keir Starmer, a man trying to ride two horses at once.
‘He knows this strike is pointlessly destructive but his warning has been flatly ignored by shadow frontbenchers and backbenchers in thrall to unions who are prepared to place sectional interests above those of the country.
‘He is facing a crisis of authority. The Left senses his weakness and is humiliating him with every Labour MP’s appearance on a picket line. He has lost his grip on his own party.’
Yesterday’s strike by 40,000 rail workers caused massive travel disruption, with fewer than 20 per cent of services thought to have run.
Red line: Labour MPs at London’s Victoria station yesterday, from left: Beth Winter (Cynon Valley), Kim Johnson (Liverpool Riverside), Rachael Maskell (York Central), Ian Mearns (Gateshead), Richard Burgon (Leeds East), Zarah Sultana (Coventry South), Ian Byrne (Liverpool West Derby), Rebecca Long-Bailey (Salford and Eccles), Dan Carden (Liverpool Walton), Paula Barker (Liverpool Wavertree)
By Andy Jehring
Rail unions brought Britain to a standstill yesterday to demand more cash despite some of their members earning big salaries.
Train drivers have a median salary of £59,000 – which is around £5,000 more than the pay of an average solicitor or a major in the Army.
Rail workers in general earn £44,000 on average according to the Government, which is higher than teachers (£41,800), the Royal Navy (£36,666), and an Army sergeant (£35,853).
The RMT claims this figure is not representative of those striking as the majority of drivers who earn the most are not on the picket line, while low-paid staff such as cleaners are.
It said the median salary of those protesting was £33,000 – but that is still over 25 per cent higher than the median annual pay of UK workers (£25,971) and nearly double a care worker’s average pay (£17,000).
Even taking the union barons’ figure as gospel would still mean that those on strike earn roughly the same as most nurses and a little more than a junior doctor who have gone through seven years of training.
It means low-skilled workers already earning more than frontline NHS staff are holding Britain to ransom to try and get a 7 per cent pay raise. This is despite the Government already providing £16billion so that not a single rail worker had to be furloughed through the pandemic.
Advertisement
Travellers were left stranded or forced to take to congested roads as the strike saw rail bosses cancel all services on some lines and shut down early.
Commuters face further disruption today ahead of another all-out strike tomorrow in a bitter dispute about pay and rail reforms. As the Prime Minister vowed to ‘stay the course’ against union militants amid fears that strikes could spread like wildfire through the public sector:
n RMT boss Mick Lynch called on union bosses to co-ordinate industrial action across every town and city to cause maximum disruption;
n Some 19 of the Labour MPs who joined the picket lines yesterday have declared nearly £900,000 in funding from trade unions, analysis of the register of members’ financial interests showed;
n A YouGov poll found the public opposed yesterday’s strike by a margin of 45:37;
n Network Rail boss Andrew Haines revealed negotiators had got within a ‘gnat’s whisker’ of a deal on Monday before the RMT decided to press ahead with the strikes;
n A former top aide to Sir Keir said he would face an ‘explosion’ if he tried to sack Labour MPs who defied him to back the strikes;
n Downing Street warned that public sector pay would be held well below inflation;
n Union dinosaur Arthur Scargill joined a rail picket line in West Yorkshire;
n London commuters faced extra misery as 10,000 Underground workers walked out in a separate dispute;
n The Communications Workers Union balloted 115,000 postal workers over strike action following a 2 per cent pay offer from bosses.
Sir Keir yesterday took a vow of silence on the rail dispute, with aides saying he would make no public comment either for or against the strikes.
A spokesman for the Labour leader said: ‘Unlike the Government, our focus is firmly on the public. The Tories are in charge – the responsibility for this week’s chaos lies firmly with them.’
Mrs Rayner took advantage of the leadership vacuum at the top of the Labour Party to make clear she backed the strikes, which are due to be repeated on Saturday as well as tomorrow.
‘Workers have been left with no choice,’ she said.
‘No one takes strike action lightly. I will always defend their absolute right to do so for fairness at work.’
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also defied Sir Keir to back the strike, which has left no rail services operating north of Glasgow today.
Mr Sarwar joined strikers on a picket line in Edinburgh to show ‘solidarity’, and said the crisis was ‘entirely of the Government’s making’.
Sir Keir’s office told Labour frontbenchers on Monday that they would be disciplined if they joined picket lines outside stations.
But at least four members of Sir Keir’s top team ignored the warning, including shadow minister Alex Sobel, whip Navendu Mishra and parliamentary aides Kate Osborne and Paula Barker.
Mr Mishra accused ministers of ‘treachery’, adding: ‘As a proud trade unionist, I stand with all workers on our railway network who are taking industrial action to fight for their jobs and keep passengers safe.’
Others joining picket lines across the country
