THE number of working days lost to strike action under Labour is set to surge past 750,000 despite handing bumper pay hikes to its union ‘paymasters’, it emerged today.
Analysis of official figures shows that between July 2024, when Labour won the election, and September this year, 684,000 working days were wiped out because of strikes.
But an extra 80,000 are expected to be lost this month amid the latest resident doctors’ walkout, with more strikes on the cards because talks with ministers have completely broken down.
It comes despite resident doctors, who started their latest crippling five-day strike today, having been handed a 22 per cent hike last year. They are demanding a further rise of 29 per cent.
Labour has handed inflation-busting pay awards to several unions since winning last year’s election, with train drivers also handed 15 per cent.
But the analysis of Office for National Statistics data suggests it has failed to tame them.
It includes walkouts by thousands of London Underground staff in September, which brought the capital to a grinding halt for a week. Nearly 40,000 working days were lost to strike action that month.
Resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, started their second five-day strike today, which is set to send the number of working days lost to strikes under Labour to over 750,000
Resident doctors are walking out amid demands for a 29 per cent pay hike – in addition to the 22 per cent they were given last year
Under Labour, there have been strikes in several other sectors, including by London Underground staff, which brought the network and capital to a grinding halt in September
The highest number of working days lost in any month since Keir Starmer entered Downing Street was in July (83,000), the last time resident – formerly known as junior – doctors walked out for five days in their bitter dispute over pay.
More than 50,000 days were also lost in each of December, January, February and March. This was when the Birmingham bin strikes were at their height, leaving residents to wade past thousands of tons of rubbish which piled up on the streets. The dispute remains unresolved and has been extended until at least March next year.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch claimed union barons had been emboldened by Labour, saying: ‘Last year Keir Starmer put up taxes on struggling businesses but gave huge inflation-busting pay rises to the unions, promising this would end strikes.
‘But here we are a year later with doctors striking for the second time and London Tube drivers have walked out, piling more misery on all of us.’
Conservative business spokesman Andrew Griffith blasted: ‘Labour has bent over backwards for its paymaster unions every chance they have got, with no-strings-attached pay rises.
‘It is no surprise they are now running riot.’
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Labour had in fact emboldened its union ‘paymasters’ rather than control them
Health Secretary Wes Streeting today branded the latest strikes by resident doctors ‘reckless’ and ‘extremely irresponsible’
In July, the Daily Mail revealed how the British Medical Association, which represents junior doctors, has amassed a £1million war chest which it has ringfenced to help force ministers into giving them another huge pay rise.
Further reserves worth tens of millions built up by the union could also be tapped into to wreak chaos throughout the winter by giving strike pay to those who walkout.
A BMA union source said talks had completely broken down and that members would be re-balloted in January on another 6-month strike mandate, raising the prospect of walkouts lasting until next summer.
Dr Emma Runswick, the BMA deputy chairman of council, said the government would only end the dispute by putting ‘an offer on the table that restores the pay to where it needs to be, gives the much-needed increase in jobs and helps bring down patient waiting lists’.
They are striking over the number of jobs and training contracts available to them, their working conditions and their pay, as they lobby for a 29 per cent pay increase.
The Health Department was contacted for comment, but Health Secretary Wes Streeting today branded the strikes ‘reckless’ and ‘extremely irresponsible’.