Mcdonnell backs return of flying pickets and sympathy strikes as Labour policy

JOHN MCDONNELL has backed the return of flying pickets and “sympathy strikes” as part of Labour’s latest plan to take Britain back to the Seventies.

The shadow chancellor, together with Ian Lavery, the Labour Party chairman, and Rebecca Long-bailey, the shadow business secretary, has endorsed the policies of a Labour thinktank that wants to repeal all prohibitive trade union laws passed since 1979. Unions have donated £28.7million to the Labour Party since Jeremy Corbyn became its leader. Mr Mcdonnell has described the Institute of Employment Rights’ Manifesto for Labour Law as a “blueprint” for Labour policy on workers’ rights. Mr Lavery and Ms Long-bailey have both expressed their support for the document on Twitter.

It calls for the repeal of laws which prevent flying pickets – picketers who protest away from their usual place of work – and “sympathy action”, in which workers strike in sympathy for others in another union or trade. The IER also calls for an end to restrictions against strikes in essential public services.

Mr Mcdonnell has said in the past that Labour should “automatically” support all strikes. In the Seventies, Britain was known as “the sick man of Europe” because of its poor growth and productivity caused in no small part by strikes. James Cleverly, the Tory MP, said: “Labour want to take us back to the days where union barons could hold the country to ransom and disrupt the lives of millions of people with militant strike action.”

Meanwhile a Labour frontbencher has been criticised for issuing a warning to his colleagues to back Jeremy Corbyn or face deselection. Chris Williamson, the shadow fire minister, used a “socialist Christmas broadcast” on Twitter to tell party members they must “take responsibility” by “selecting candidates who support the progressive agenda that won Jeremy two Labour leadership victories”.

He claimed Labour “didn’t lose” the election and made clear his republican views by sitting in front of a palatial backdrop with The Red Flag as background music. One Labour MP told the Politicshome website that Mr Williamson’s video message was “creepy”.