Weeks of strikes by workers in essential public services are set to cause mass disruption over the Christmas period and beyond.
Postal workers, nurses, paramedics, rail workers, Border Force staff and others will walk out in December and January, often on concurrent days.
Thousands of NHS operations and appointments have been cancelled, while holidaymakers to reconsider their Christmas holidays due to expected chaos at the UK’s major travel hubs.
The government is drawing up plans to bring the army in to drive ambulances and run airport passport control desks as ministers and unions remain at loggerheads.
Strike action is taking place on almost every day until mid-January, with highway workers, driving examiners and airport baggage handlers also withdrawing their services.
Christmas Eve could prove one of the most hectic days as letters and parcels will not be delivered, train services will end hours before usual and Border Force staff will leave their posts.
London will face added pressure as a strike on the buses will leave services severely limited across large parts of the capital.
The NHS faces a historic strike by nurses beginning on 15 December, which will see Royal College of Nursing members on certain contracts walk out at hospital trusts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Ambulance workers will walk out on 21 and 28 December, while health workers were also striking in Northern Ireland on Monday 12 December.
Downing Street said the walkouts will cause “serious disruption” in the health service despite the military stepping in to alleviate some pressures.
A meeting of Cobra – the government’s emergency response committee – was set to be held on Monday afternoon to discuss plans to plug gaps in key services with soldiers and civil servants.
Asked what roles military personnel will be taking on in the NHS, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “There’s still some discussions I believe ongoing with the unions about exactly what areas they plan to provide cover for, and that will probably inform some of the roles that these individuals have to carry out as well.
“But clearly we are not suggesting that there won’t be serious disruption caused by strikes. These individuals are going to be extremely helpful in mitigating some of that disruption, but nonetheless, it will have an impact.”
Soldiers would not be able to provide all the functions of the striking staff. It is understood that they are unlikely to drive ambulances to respond to urgent calls due to limitations such as lacking permission to jump red lights. Instead, they would drive ambulances for non-urgent calls to free up paramedics.
But there will be fewer paramedics to respond to life-threatening situations on the strike day, the spokesman warned.
The military and civil servants are likely to be brought in to cover Border Force staff, as strikes by the government agency’s passport control workers from 23 December are expected to cause disruption to passengers.
Border Force members of the Public and Commercial Services union at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow airports will walk out.
Heathrow said bosses were doing “everything we can” to ensure no flights were cancelled due to the strikes.
Airlines have been urged by Border Force to cancel up to 30 per cent of flights on strike days to prevent chaos at airports.
But easyJet said it intends to run its full schedule as “we want to take our customers on their planned trips at this important time of year”.
Workers at Network Rail and train companies will walk out on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
Services on those days will start later and finish much earlier than usual, with trains running between 7.30am and 6.30pm.
Many parts of Britain will have no trains, including most of Scotland and Wales. Disruption due to ice and snow is also likely to cause further misery to passengers on strike days.
Rail, Maritime and Transport union workers at Network Rail will also strike from 6pm on Christmas Eve until 6am on 27 December.
It is likely that passengers travelling on Christmas Eve will be urged to complete their journeys by the time that industrial action begins.
