Rishi Sunak vows to do his ‘duty’ by passing legislation to rein in unions

Rishi Sunak today vowed to do his ‘duty’ by passing legislation to rein in unions wrecking Christmas with a wave of strikes.

In bruising clashes with Keir Starmer at PMQs, Mr Sunak insisted he had to ‘protect’ the public when bodies such as the RMT were being ‘unreasonable’.

The bullish stance came as ministers warned the government cannot go further than the pay offers it has made, with Health Secretary Steve Barclay claiming that handing inflation-matching rises to everyone in the public sector would cost £28billion a year. 

No10 later refused to rule out new laws that would ban medics like nurses and paramedics from striking in the same way police are barred from walking out. But they  declined to give any details. 

In their Commons confrontation, Sir Keir said Mr Sunak should stop ‘sitting on his hands’ and ‘get round the table’ with unions.

But the premier told the Commons: ‘Hard-working families right now in this country are facing challenges.

‘The Government has been reasonable. It’s accepted the recommendations of an independent pay review body, giving pay rises in many cases higher than the private sector.

‘But if the union leaders continue to be unreasonable, then it is my duty to take action to protect the lives and livelihoods of the British public.

‘That’s why, Mr Speaker, since I became Prime Minister I have been working for new tough laws to protect people from this disruption.’

He said if Sir Keir wanted to ‘stand up for working people’ he would back the legislation.

Tories have been urging Mr Sunak to push ahead with legislation curbing the powers of unions to bring the country grinding to a halt. 

MPs are also griping that he needs to ‘make the case better’ that fundamental change in the public sector is the only way to raise performance and wages.

The government has accused rail union barons of ‘holding the country to ransom’ after adding more strike days from December 24-27. Even if the dispute was settled immediately – which seems a remote possibility – managers have warned that services will still be in chaos. 

NHS, education, and postal staff, as well as driving instructors, are also planning to strike over the festive season. Altogether around a million workers are said to be set to down tools in the coming weeks.

But Mr Barclay made clear this morning that the government is not willing to go any further on pay. 

‘If we were to accept for everyone in the public sector getting a pay rise in line with inflation, that would cost £28billion,’ he told GB News.

‘It’s not reasonable to expect a further £28billion pounds in pay uplifts in line with inflation because there are many other pressures within the NHS that we need to address, to get those patient backlogs down, to address the operations that people are waiting for, to address the pressures at 8am on primary care when people are trying to find a GP and also to support ambulances and paramedics.

‘We’ve had a significant increase in paramedic staff, a 40 per cent increase since 2010. So we are investing in our paramedics. We’ve got 3,000 a year in training, but it’s right that we do that alongside the discussions on pay.’

Tories are alarmed about a repeat of the ‘winter of discontent’ that effectively destroyed the Callaghan government in the 1970s. 

One MP told MailOnline that the government should be bringing in minimum service level rules for rail, pointing out that key staff such as prison guards are not able to strike.

But they delivered a downbeat assessment – admitting ministers seem unwilling to go ahead. ‘If they don’t we are going to have all these strikes. This feels so much like what it was like in the past when we had inflation. The Labour government didn’t know what to do about it. The government is in a bind.’    

A minister told the Financial Times: ‘If the Christmas Eve strike goes ahead, we need to crack on with the anti-strike laws early in the new year.’ 

Mark Harper has urged rail unions not to recommend their members reject offers aimed at resolving industrial disputes.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will press ahead with strikes from next week after it recommended its members should reject the latest offer from Network Rail.

Mr Harper told the Commons Transport Select Committee: ‘My department spends something over 60 per cent of the department’s total spending on capital and revenue on railways, and only 10 per cent of journey miles in the country are on rail.

‘I just think we have to get that into a better sense of balance. That’s what we’re trying to do with the unions.

‘I would still urge the unions to keep talking, put those deals to their members with at least a neutral recommendation, and call off the strikes before Christmas which are going to be so damaging to individuals and businesses across a whole range of sectors.

‘The Government will do what we can to try and encourage both employers and unions to keep talking.’

Two 48-hour rail walkouts next week, on December 13-14 and 16-17 are going ahead, along with two more on January 3-4 and 6-7.

However, the union cancelled an overtime ban from December 18 to January 2 which could have caused hundreds of last-minute cancellations. Several operators rely on overtime working to run a full timetable.

Mr Lynch said a new pay rise offer of 9 per cent over this year, backdated to January, and next will be put to workers in a referendum. The offer also includes no compulsory redundancies until 2025.

But Mr Lynch said the union will encourage members to reject it. The result will be announced on Monday.

It means that next week’s strikes will go ahead come what may, but the December 24-27 and January action will be called off if members accept it.