Hard Left Labour MPs pose for pictures with striking RMT workers

Hard Left Labour MPs ignore Keir Starmer and pose for pictures with striking RMT rail union members who have pushed Britain back into lockdown and attack ‘the establishment’ for trying to ‘demonise workers’

• Socialist Campaign Group MPs defiantly joined RMT picket at Victoria Station
• Half of Britain’s rail lines will be closed today, including all of Wales and Scotland
• Ian Byrne said the ‘establishment’ was trying to ‘demonise workers’ over pay

Hard Left Labour MPs ignored attempts by Keir Starmer to distance the party from strikes crippling Britain today by posing for pictures in the picket line.

Members of the Socialist Campaign Group who supported former leader Jeremy Corbyn, defiantly joined Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) members at Victoria Station in London.

Commuters face a second day of severe rail disruption as RMT members are joined in walkouts by Royal Mail workers, and nurses prepare to take unprecedented industrial action.

As on the first day of the 48-hour strike, around half of Britain’s rail lines will be closed all day, as thousands of members at Network Rail and 14 train operating companies walk out in the long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.

Many parts of the country will have no services, including most of Scotland and Wales – which has a Labour government. 

But despite the huge damage being wrought on the economy and Christmas plans, a hardcore of SCG members including secretary Richard Burgon posed in the cold.

Others at the Victoria picket today included Jarrow’s Kate Osborne, Cynon Valley’s Beth Winter, and Corbyn era shadow ministers Jon Trickett and Ian Lavery.

Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne, who recently narrowly saw off a bid by his local party to deselect him, tweeted: ‘The establishment are trying to demonise workers who are standing up for their jobs, pay, and public services. 

Members of the Socialist Campaign Group who supported former leader Jeremy Corbyn, defiantly joined Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) members at Victoria Station in London.

Others at the Victoria picket today included Jarrow’s Kate Osborne, Cynon Valley’s Beth Winter, and Corbyn era shadow ministers Jon Trickett and Ian Lavery

Mick Lynch loses support in the cold 

Public support for Mick Lynch’s crippling Christmas strikes is draining away – including amongst his own members who will lose up to £5,000 – as Britain faces another Covid-style lockdown with the festive season now in ruins for the third year running and businesses face losing billions. 

Millions of workers must now stay at home – some until 2023 –  due to union barons such as £84,000-a-year Mr Lynch shutting down critical services until January 10. Two new polls show that support for rail strikes is dropping – and strong opposition is on the up, according to pollsters Ipsos MORI.

A poll showed public support is falling after he ramped up strikes for Christmas

RMT union boss Mick Lynch (pictured left) with an union official on a picket line outside Euston train station on the second day of rail strikes

With a cold snap blasting the country, support for RMT union boss Mick Lynch on the picket lines appears to be dwindling, with a poll revealing support for the rail strikes falling by eight points since October. 

On day two of the RMT’s rail strikes, half of Britain’s rail lines are closed all day, as thousands of members at Network Rail and 14 train operating companies walk out in the long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions. Many parts of the country will have no services, including most of Scotland and Wales.

Rail staff have been joined in walkouts by Royal Mail workers, and nurses prepare to take unprecedented industrial action, which experts say puts lives at risk amid claims chemotherapy appointments have been axed  as 100,000 medical staff stay at home tomorrow.

‘We need to stand side by side with trade unionists who are fighting for a better future. I was proud to join the RMT Union picket at Victoria Station this morning.’

Sir Keir has ordered his frontbenchers to stay away from picket lines as he tries to navigate a political path through the strikes.

But backbench opponents are free to ignore him and have done so during many of the strikes that have happened this year.

The RMT is not affiliated to Labour, though some other unions who are on strike are. 

Mr Trickett tweeted: ‘Proud to stand with RMT members alongside my Socialist Campaign Group colleagues at Victoria Station picket line this morning.’

Postal workers in the Communication Workers Union (CWU) are staging a fresh 48-hour national walkout today, their third of six days of strikes in the run-up to Christmas.

A meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergency committee will take place to discuss contingency arrangements, the second time ministers, officials and military chiefs have come together this week.

Royal Mail has brought forward the final posting dates for Christmas cards to December 16 for first class mail, and December 21 for special delivery guaranteed.

Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due to start strike action in a row over pay on Thursday after talks with the Government broke down.

The nursing union was urged to do more to ‘avoid patient harm’ and ‘alleviate unnecessary distress’ for dying patients on strike days by the UK’s four chief nurses and the NHS’s head of cancer care.

Dame Cally Palmer, the national cancer director for NHS England, urged RCN general secretary Pat Cullen to protect ‘life-saving’ and ‘urgent’ cancer operations.

In her letter, obtained by Sky News, she wrote: ‘Our common aim is to ensure we do not cause harm to people undergoing vital cancer treatment to achieve cure or extension of life.’

In response, the RCN insisted that ‘cancer patients will get emergency and clinically urgent surgery, it is not in doubt’.

‘This is a politically-motivated smear from a Government that is failing cancer patients,’ a spokesperson for the union said.

Separately, Dame Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England, and her counterparts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, also wrote to Ms Cullen raising a series of concerns about patient safety.

They said chemotherapy is being rescheduled from the strike days at some hospitals despite the union agreeing it would be exempt nationally.

The chief nurses also asked for assurances that community nursing services providing ‘end of life care and good pain and symptom relief’ continue in order to ‘alleviate unnecessary distress’ for palliative patients and their families.

The RCN said on Tuesday that it had agreed further exemptions to the strike action, including emergency cancer services and ‘front-door’ urgent care assessment and admission units for paediatric-only A&E departments.

‘The safety of patients is everybody’s top concern,’ the union’s spokesperson said.

Civil servants in the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) – including driving examiners and Rural Payments Agency workers – continue their walkouts on Wednesday.

The strike action is regional, with members working for the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) having kicked off a month-long rolling strike programme in Scotland and northern England on Tuesday.

The wave of industrial action is growing, with physiotherapists in England and Wales voting to strike in their first ever ballot on pay. The action is expected to take place early in the new year.

Midwives and maternity support workers in Wales who are members of the Royal College of Midwives have also voted to go on strike over pay.

Members of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) rail workers’ union at operator CrossCountry are also set to strike on Boxing Day and December 27, it was announced on Tuesday.

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