Kwarteng blocks move to electronic strike ballots
THE Business Secretary has killed off plans to allow unions to hold electronic votes on strike action, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.
In a significant escalation of the Government’s war with unions, Kwasi Kwarteng is preparing to formally reject proposals for electronic strike ballots – ending a move towards the change that was set in train by David Cameron in 2016 that would have made it easier to organise strikes.
The disclosure comes after Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), called on Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, to “tone down the rhetoric and get on with his job” in order to settle the dispute over jobs, pay and conditions for rail staff.
Meanwhile, it emerged that Nadia Whittome, a Labour MP, has donated £2,000 to the RMT’s strike fund, despite Sir Keir Starmer’s stance against the industrial action.
The Trades Union Congress, which represents unions, has said the current legal requirement for strike ballots to be held using postal votes is outdated, “expensive, time-consuming and does little to boost participation”.
But, in a formal response to a review of the issue by Sir Ken Knight, the former commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, Mr Kwarteng is expected to allude to the potential for electronic ballots to be manipulated by “ill-intentioned” states such as Russia. He will cite the report’s concerns that electronic votes could be vulnerable to a “malevolent attack on Britain’s IT systems, whether from criminals, those seeking to frustrate users or from those directly or indirectly employed by illintentioned foreign states”.
An ally of Mr Kwarteng said: “Hostile states are looking for every opportunity to destabilise Britain’s economy, so this is absolutely the last thing Kwasi is going to take forward. It would be complete insanity.”
The decision and timing of the announcement is likely to infuriate union leaders, who have been demanding action since the review was first published in December 2017.