While his own MPs criticize him of “doing it wrong” on train strikes, Keir Starmer is still MIA today.
After scores of people joined picket lines to support the debilitating national strike, the Labour leader is facing an increasing backlash.
Despite Sir Keir’s orders for them to avoid the demonstrations, they at least included four members of the front bench. Tan Dhesi, the shadow rail minister, bizarrely stated last night that he had not even read the leader’s office order.
By openly supporting the strikes and asserting that the RMT union had “no option” given its demand for a salary increase of more than 7%, deputy leader Angela Rayner exacerbated already roiling emotions.
However, Sir Keir was accused of “hiding” after declining to speak on the greatest labor conflict in 30 years.
He will have to return later because the weekly PMQs session is scheduled to begin at noon. Boris Johnson will undoubtedly take pleasure in his suffering.
The PM has urged for a return to discussions and referred to the strike as “wrong and unnecessary.”
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, charged that Labor and the unions were “bringing us back to the dark old days” of the 1970s.
‘The Left understands his fragility and is humiliating him with every Labour MP appearance on a picket line,’ he continued of Sir Keir. He no longer has control over his own party.
The RMT spaced out three days of action across the week to cause the most suffering, and the effects of the strike are still being felt today.
Yesterday, fewer than 20% of services were in operation. All trains north of Falkirk were canceled, resulting in the cancellation of nine out of ten services throughout Scotland.
Only five services ran in the Central Belt, leaving travelers stranded or compelled to use crowded highways.
According to Sir Keir’s advisers, he won’t be making any public remarks. According to a spokeswoman, “our focus is firmly on the public, unlike the Government.” The Tories are in control; they are solely to blame for the catastrophe this week.
Ms Rayner took advantage of the leadership vacuum to make clear she backed the strikes. ‘Workers have been left with no choice,’ she said.
‘No one takes strike action lightly. I will always defend their absolute right to do so for fairness at work.’
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was photographed backing striking workers north of the border.
Mr Sarwar wrote on Twitter: ‘This is a crisis entirely of the Government’s making. The workers don’t want strikes. The unions don’t want strikes. The public don’t want strikes. They demand better.’
Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford said he was not issuing similar orders against joining picket lines to his AMs.
On Monday, Sir Keir’s office issued a warning to Labour frontbenchers that joining picket lines outside railway stations would result in disciplinary action.
However, at least four members of his top staff disregarded the advice, including parliamentary assistants Kate Osborne and Paula Barker, shadow minister Alex Sobel, and Labour whip Navendu Mishra.
Last night, Ms. Dhesi said on Talk TV that he had not received the directive.
‘I did not receive any email. In fact I got my team to check, to comb through the emails,’ he said.
‘There wasn’t any official memo coming out to the likes of myself. That’s why you would have seen different people doing different things.’
Mr Dhesi said he personally had not gone to a picket line because ‘I was too busy trying to do my job’.
Liverpool MP Kim Johnson told the BBC that Sir Keir had ‘got it wrong’ on the strikes
‘We’re a party that was born out of the trade union movement,’ she said.
‘I think Keir Starmer has got it wrong.’
Simon Fletcher, a former top aide to Sir Keir, told LBC radio that the Labour leader would face a major backlash if he tried to lay down the law, including the possible loss of huge sums of union funding.
Sir Keir already appears to be in retreat, with Labour sources saying that chief whip Alan Campbell will not decide until the weekend whether to impose disciplinary action.
Mr Lynch urged RMT members to inflict more misery tomorrow, saying: ‘Now is the time to stand up and fight for every single railway worker in this dispute that we will win.’