Minimum service levels bill clears the Commons after Labour was urged to stop ... trends now
The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill has passed through the House of Commons.
MPs voted 315 to 246 to send the bill, which would guarantee minimum service levels during walkouts, to the House of Lords.
The Tories warned Labour that blocking the legislation could stop Britons going to hospital or children going to school after the opposition scheduled a number of amendments.
Business minister Kevin Hollinrake told the Commons that the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill is not ‘radical’ but ‘reasonable’ and ‘proportionate’.
Labour was accused of ‘playing politics’ with people’s lives after it tried to cripple moves to minimise strike disruption
The unions and barons are undergoing strikes in want of change
On Wednesday hundreds of thousands of teachers, train drivers and civil servants will stage coordinated strikes in Britain’s biggest day of industrial action for more than a decade.
Fresh strike action was also announced last night after firefighters voted to walk out, with the head of the union warning that he could not rule out people dying.
Mr Hollinrake told MPs that while the Government wants to resolve the disputes, it must be done in an ‘affordable way’.
He added: ‘An inflation-matching pay increase of 11 per cent for all public sector workers would cost £28billion – that’s just under £1,000 on to the bills of each [household.
‘I say, that’s on top of the Opposition’s spending plans, which have already added £50billion annually of recurrent costs on to our economy and that’s on top of a situation [where] we are already running a £175billion deficit.
The Tories warned that blocking the legislation could stop Britons going to hospital or children going to school
On Wednesday hundreds of thousands of teachers, train drivers and civil servants will stage coordinated strikes in Britain’s biggest day of industrial action for more than a decade
‘What we have seen over recent months is you cannot take the markets for granted. That level of borrowing is
