Rail strikes: ’messy day’ of travel as talks stall
The political clash over rail strikes is set to come to a head at prime minister’s questions today, with few signs of progress in the talks to avert further walkouts.
Boris Johnson and Sir Keir Starmer have their weekly clash in the Commons amidst the biggest rail strike in three decades.
Anthony Smith, the chief executive of Transport Focus, told Today on BBC Radio 4 programme: “Today is going to be quite a messy day still.”
Starmer is likely to want to use his six questions to make his case that the strike is the government’s fault because of its unwillingness to take charge of the negotiations being conducted between Network Rail and the RMT.
There is certainly not much hope in government that those talks are going to produce a solution today. Even if they did, it would be too late to ensure normal service on the railways tomorrow, which is the second of the three days this week that RMT workers will walk out.
Today’s inflation figures do not help matters. They show that inflation hit a new 40-year high of 9.1 per cent last month. It means that a reported offer from Network Rail of a 3 per cent pay rise is even less likely to sate the RMT, which is pushing for a rise in the region of 7 per cent.
The inflation figures also entrench the prospect of strikes across other sectors. Mary Bousted, the general secretary of the National Education Union, will send a letter to Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, demanding a pay rise for teachers which matches inflation. If — more accurately, when — the government does not agree, she is likely to ballot her members on a strike, although this would not take place until October.
The growing sense that a summer of discontent is looming makes the topic all but unavoidable for Starmer today. But the issue comes with political risks for him. Yes, commuters’ journeys are being disrupted on Johnson’s watch. But his party is united in its vociferous condemnation of the strikes, whereas Labour faces questions over whether it is going to discipline frontbenchers who defied his orders and joined picket lines yesterday.
But as well as whipping arrangements there is a broader question of principle which Starmer may soon have to answer. As The Times reports today, Johnson believes the government “must win” its fight with the rail unions, even if it lasts for months, because otherwise it could set a precedent which enacts a wage-price spiral.
Does Starmer believe that pay for public sector workers should rise at the rate of inflation? If he does, that is a big political call to make for the next election - would voters working in the private sector resent that? And if he does not, that could aggravate large chunks of the Labour coalition.
Today’s PMQs is just the start of an uncomfortable political period for both parties.