Starmer does support the rail strikers
Labour leader’s silence over walkout has been deafening... now leak f inally reveals his backing for the union barons
SIR Keir Starmer has been accused of hypocrisy after leaked documents reveal he privately supported strike action by rail workers – while publicly claiming to regret the chaos it is about to unleash.
The Mail on Sunday has obtained minutes from a meeting of Labour’s ruling body which record Sir Keir saying he opposed Government moves to restrict industrial action by the Aslef train drivers’ union.
But earlier this month, the Opposition leader insisted: ‘I don’t want to see strikes, nobody wants the strikes.’
The rail network will be paralysed for three days this week over a demand by workers for double-digit pay increases, while summer holidays have been thrown into doubt after another Labour-affiliated union, the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA), raised the prospect of more strikes next month.
Sir Keir’s supportive comments came at a meeting of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) last month, just eight days after Aslef members voted to retain their links to the party.
The leaked minutes say Sir Keir ‘thanked... Aslef for staying with the Labour party’, before adding: ‘On possible action on the railways he [Sir Keir] said it was wrong for the Government to restrict the right to strike.’
Last night, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Keir Starmer’s claims to be on the side of the public have been exposed as a total sham. While his union paymasters are driving their members towards a national strike under false pretences, he is saying one thing in public and another in private.
‘Far from not wanting the strikes to happen, behind closed doors he is giving them the green light, opposing efforts to prevent them and pocketing rail union cash.’
Aslef has announced strikes at three rail firms starting this week, joining other action by the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union and Unite.
A new poll today finds that 52 per cent of voters believe the unions’ pay demands are ‘unreasonable’, compared to 26 per cent who thought them reasonable. The YouGov survey for the Rail Delivery Group found only one in four people supported the RMT action, while 39 per cent did not.
The Mail on Sunday has also learned that Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is planning to increase the maximum damages businesses can claim from unions for the impact of illegal strikes from £250,000 to £1million. He is expected to table the proposal in Parliament as early as next week, raising the cap in line with inflation – backdated over 40 years. He is also planning to let businesses recruit temporary and agency staff to take up jobs during strikes.
Sir Keir gave his support for rail strikes at a meeting of the NEC – which includes representatives from Aslef and the TSSA – on May 24, 15 days after rail unions started balloting for action. Its minutes were recorded by long-term NEC member Ann Black.
Labour has been split over how to respond to the strikes, with Shadow Cabinet Ministers
Wes Streeting and Lisa Nandy publicly indicating their support for the action.
The RMT union yesterday announced the strikes will go ahead after talks failed. It has demanded pay rises tied to inflation – now 9 per cent and predicted to hit 11 per cent by October – and guarantees of no compulsory redundancies.
General secretary Mick Lynch confirmed strikes at Network Rail and 13 train operators will go ahead on Tuesday, Thursday and next Saturday, and on London Underground on Tuesday.
Mr Lynch said yesterday the strike was part of a ‘class struggle’, telling the TUC’s We Demand Better protest in London: ‘The message is clear: we are in a class struggle now.
If your conditions are being attacked, if your pay is being attacked, if your jobs are being stripped from you, you are in a class struggle and there are people over there in Parliament who are meant to be on our side who have got to answer the question “which side are you on”?
‘Are you going to be with us or are you going to sit on the sidelines while these Tories butcher the working class?
‘Stand up and fight with us or get out of the way.’
Last night, Mr Shapps said: ‘We have repeatedly urged the RMT not to go ahead with these damaging strikes and instead focus their energy on getting round the negotiating table.
‘Sadly they have ignored these requests time and again, and we are now on the cusp of major disruption which will cause misery.’
As well as causing chaos for commuters, this week’s action will hit people travelling to the Glastonbury festival, the UK athletics championships in Manchester and concerts in London’s Hyde Park by Elton John and the Rolling Stones.
Meanwhile the hospitality industry warned the strikes could cost the sector £500million in lost revenue.
A spokesman for the Labour leader said: ‘Keir has been very clear that these strikes should not go ahead.’
‘It’s clear we are in a class struggle now’