Rayner accused of hypocrisy for not backing rail workers’ walk-out
ANGELA RAYNER has been accused of hypocrisy by Labour’s Left wing after she declined to back striking rail staff.
The party’s deputy leader, who has trumpeted her working class and union credentials, was last night labelled “unprincipled” by backbenchers.
The UK is braced for the biggest rail strike in more than 30 years over three days later this month. Tens of thousands of workers from Network Rail and 13 other operators will walk out on June 21, coinciding with a Tube strike in London, while RMT union members will continue their strike on June 23 and 25.
Ms Rayner declined to comment on whether rail workers should get an inflation-linked pay rise. She told the BBC podcast Newscast that strike action was “lose-lose for both sides” and said the Government must do more to avoid it.
When asked whether her sympathies on the strike days will be with commuters who cannot get to work or picketing union members, she said: “I am hopeful that they won’t get to that point but I will probably be one of those commuters as well that will be in that situation.”
Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, was accused by his own colleagues of “sitting on the fence” over the strikes earlier this week, after saying he was “on the side of the public” when asked if he backed the workers or the bosses.
However, today he makes his strongest intervention yet, telling The Daily Telegraph: “Nobody wants to see strikes and all the disruption that they cause. We want the strikes averted and we urge everyone to come back around the table to negotiate. There is still time to stop this massive inconvenience to the public. What the public want to see is a government that doesn’t just act like a commentator, as the Tories are, but gets stuck in to solve it.” However, he did not condemn the striking workers.
Ms Rayner has spoken about her affinity to trade unions, saying last year that it is “only because of the Labour Party and our trade union movement that I’ve gone from no GCSES and a minimum wage job to where I am today”. She added: “So it is my responsibility now to make sure that we learn the lessons and reconnect with the people and the places that we are here to fight for, and to make sure that they know that we speak for them.”
Her remarks on the strikes this week prompted accusations of hypocrisy from Left-wing MPS who said she was on the “wrong side” of the argument.
“It makes her look unprincipled because it is so different to what she has said in the past and what she said she is. One has to assume that Keir’s people have had a conversation with her,” one Labour MP said. Meanwhile, Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, appeared to side with the strikers.
Speaking on the BBC’S Question Time on Thursday evening, he said that although he would “prefer” the strike not to go ahead, if he were a member of the RMT he would have voted to strike.
A Labour spokesman said its “clear” position was that the strikes “shouldn’t go ahead”. He added: “There is still time for there to be a resolution and we would encourage the Government to play a more active role in working with Network Rail and the unions.”