Labour’s transport’s spokesman has defied Keir Starmer by joining striking rail workers on their picket line, prompting a call for him to be sacked.
Sam Tarry showed his support for the RMT union’s walkout over pay and redundancies at London’s Euston station – just 24 hours after his party leader ordered all frontbenchers to stay away.
“If we don’t make a stand today, people’s lives could be lost,” Mr Tarry said, adding: “It can’t be accepted anymore, that people just have to accept that inflation is out of control.”
Asked if he fears the sack, the shadow minister replied: “I’ve no idea what Keir will decide to do but I know this – if Keir was in government right now, this dispute wouldn’t be happening.”
Anneliese Dodds, Labour’s chair, said: “Ultimately it’s a decision for that individual, but I’m sure that the whips will be looking at this in terms of it being a disciplinary matter.”
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said: “He is clearly in direct defiance of Sir Keir Starmer. No doubt he’ll want to remove him from his job.”
He said nobody should be joining the strikers in “stopping hardworking people” getting to work, adding: “If Labour frontbenchers are going to join them on the picket line, people will come to their own conclusions.”
Passengers are suffering fresh travel chaos because of the worsening disputes over jobs, pay, pensions and conditions, with more strikes planned for the coming days.
Only around one in five trains will run on Wednesday, on around half the network, with passengers are being urged to only travel if it is really necessary and to allow extra time for journeys.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch condemned the employers, saying: “Network Rail have not made any improvement on their previous pay offer and the train companies have not offered us anything new.
“In fact, Network Rail have upped the ante, threatening to impose compulsory redundancies and unsafe 50 per cent cuts to maintenance work if we did not withdraw our planned strike action.”
But Mr Shapps stepped up threats to curb rail workers’ right to strike, condemning “about 160 disputes” threatened up union as “not normal in any industry”.
“That is why, I’m afraid, we need to do more to remove the power of these very militant, extreme left unions from disrupting everyday lives of ordinary people,” the transport secretary told Sky News.
On Wednesday, Sir Keir told his senior MPs: “The Labour party in opposition needs to be the Labour party in power. And a government doesn’t go on picket lines, a government tries to resolve disputes.”
But Mr Lynch attacked the stance, saying: “The Labour Party have got themselves in a pickle. They don’t seem to know what direction they are facing in.”
He said the Labour leader must “get in tune with where working class people are”, adding: “People fear there is no balance in the workplace.”
