Rishi Sunak is working on “new tough laws” to protect people from strike action, as pressure grows from within his own party to act as the UK heads into a winter of industrial action.
The prime minister told the House of Commons on Wednesday that if “union leaders continue to be unreasonable, then it is my duty to take action to protect the lives and livelihoods of the British public”.
Downing Street refused to say whether a ban on strikes in certain sectors, including for ambulance drivers who are due to stage their first walkout on December 21, was being considered. “We’re not getting into specific policy proposals,” a spokesperson said.
Sunak’s tougher stance came as some ministers and Conservative backbenchers questioned why he has not already taken action. Successive Tory prime ministers have vowed to introduce tougher laws on strikes without delivering them.
Boris Johnson promised a bill to guarantee a minimum service on railways in the Queen’s Speech in May but it has not yet even had its crucial second reading in the House of Commons.
“Liz Truss said she’d have this done within 30 days of becoming prime minister. We are now at a point well past that,” said Chris Loder, a Tory member of the transport select committee, referring to Johnson’s successor.
Downing Street said that “given the level of disruption, it is right to look at going further than minimum service levels on transport” but refused to say when any new legislation might be ready.
“We want to do it at speed,” Sunak’s spokesman added but declined to say whether any new laws would affect industrial action planned this winter.
More than 1mn working days will be lost to strike action in December — the worst disruption in any month since July 1989 — based on unions’ current plans for action by postal and rail workers, NHS staff and civil servants.
Former cabinet ministers have told the Financial Times that even the limited legislation to guarantee minimum services during strikes on the railways had been held up because of fears it would inflame the current dispute.
“The right to strike is a fundamental British liberty. With inflation running at 11 per cent, Rishi Sunak wants to make it harder for working people to win better pay and conditions,” said TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady.
Transport secretary Mark Harper told the transport select committee on Wednesday he could not give a timeframe for when the minimum service legislation would move to a second reading.
“While legislation may well improve the service that passengers receive on strike days, I think my priority is to try and ensure we resolve the industrial dispute so that passengers do not have strike days,” he said.
Members of the RMT, the largest railway union which is locked in disputes with both infrastructure owner Network Rail and 14 train operating companies, are set to walk out in the latest series of strikes that are expected to shut down the network for most of next week.
The union has urged its members to reject what it called a “poor” pay offer of a 9 per cent pay rise over two years from Network Rail, and is still holding out for a new deal with train operators after turning down an 8 per cent offer.
Harper repeatedly refused to deny the government had told the train operating companies to insert tough extra conditions that unions were bound to reject, notably changes to the responsibilities of conductors to allow drivers to operate train doors.
Two industry officials said the “driver-only operation” clauses were added late on and had made finding a deal exceptionally difficult.
“Anyone with any experience would understand what introducing that into the mix would mean,” one of the people said.
“If Number 10 have forced the issue of driver-only trains into the negotiations at this last minute, then they, and they alone, will be responsible for Christmas chaos,” said Labour shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh.
Health secretary Steve Barclay on Wednesday said that agreeing to the demands of trade unions representing NHS staff, including nurses, would hurt the health service’s ability to build new diagnostic centres and reduce waiting lists.
In an interview with Sky News, Barclay said he was open to talks with the unions about pay and other issues, but added that meeting the demands in full would affect the provision of other services.
