Keir Starmer is seemingly being held hostage by unions across Britain as the Tories claimed that kowtowing to train drivers was a sign that the Labour Party is being “played by its union paymasters”.
A pay offer to train drivers came to light on Wednesday and is set to be voted on by the Aslef union.
If accepted, it would include a backdated 5 per cent pay rise for 2019 to 2022, 4.75 per cent for 2022 to 2024 and a further 4.5 per cent for 2024 to 2025.
Despite the offer, train drivers from LNER announced that there could be strike action for the next three months.
RMT union boss Mick Lynch told The Times he expected a “parallel, synchronised offer” to be offered to his members.
Tory Shadow Transport Minister Kieran Mullan said the Aslef strike was “a taste of what is to come: a nationalised train service seeing Labour-backing unions staging walkouts despite a bumper pay deal”.
Other Conservative members accused Labour of losing control of public sector pay and said the party was “being played by its union paymasters”.
They added that by kowtowing to train drivers, all trade unions would now demand “double-digit pay rises”.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, a Cabinet Office minister, said the Government was “sticking to the promises we made in opposition” and that “we would sit down and find solutions”.
Despite the threat of further strike action by LNER, Thomas-Symonds told Times Radio: “We are absolutely looking to deliver a better service for passengers.”
Writing an Op-Ed for GB News, former editor of The Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie, wrote: “We are going to see a lot of this from this Government over the years ahead.
“After all it was only half an hour ago they lobbed out 22 per cent to the doctors.”
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Source Agencies
