First of two multi-day strikes will begin at midnight tonight. Here is the FT news story. Anyone who predicted a compromise is (for now) wrong. This is bad news for Labour – coming on the day that the rail unions announce strikes over the Easter period.
My colleague Robert Wright points out that the national rail strikes – which would be the first for 16 years – are not a dead cert to take place: “only 54 per cent of those voting backed action, on a 70 per cent turnout”.
But it does all feed into the Tory attempts to create a “return to the 1970s” narrative.
Note to the Tories: RMT is no longer affiliated to the party, for what it’s worth. Which slightly undermines Theresa Villiers’ claim that: “The transport minister’s backing of the RMT’s case for striking shows the stranglehold militant unions have on Labour.” (Although, to be fair, the union did give Labour £277,608.66 between 2001 and 2005)
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey