More than half of voters back Rishi Sunak‘s plan for a new law to limit strike action by workers in vital roles to protect the public.
A new poll today shows 56 per cent support legislation to bring in minimum service levels during industrial action for paramedics, firefighters and railway workers.
Just a third of the public oppose them. But voters were against punishing workers directly for breaking the new law, according to the survey by YouGov for the Times.
Almost half (47 per cent) supported prosecution of unions who breach the new law, but just 26 per cent said action should be taken against individuals who fail to work on strike days.
It comes as talks continue to break deadlocks with NHS workers and rail workers over pay and conditions that have halted services in recent months.
Rishi Sunak yesterday accused Sir Keir Starmer of being in hock to striking unions as he urged Labour to back the new laws designed to protect lives during disputes.
The Labour leader insisted his opposition to the minimum service levels legislation was based on concerns it would inflame the situation. He told MPs: ‘His own assessments say it could increase the number of strikes. The simple truth is you can’t legislate your way out of 13 years of failure’
Rishi Sunak yesterday accused Sir Keir Starmer of being in hock to striking unions as he urged Labour to back the new laws designed to protect lives during disputes.
During angry clashes in the Commons, the Prime Minister said that backing the plan for ‘minimum service levels’ during strikes by ambulance workers and others ‘shouldn’t be controversial’.
‘This is a simple proposition,’ he said. ‘No-one denies the unions’ freedom to strike but it is also important to balance that with people’s right to have access to life-saving healthcare.’
The PM noted that similar laws are already in force in a number of European countries, such as France, Italy and Spain.
Mocking Sir Keir’s pro-EU credentials, he said it was strange that the Labour leader opposed the move as ‘normally he’s in favour of more European alignment’.
He said Sir Keir ‘simply doesn’t have a policy’ for dealing with the strikes, adding: ‘He talks about wanting to end the strikes. The question for him is simple then: why does he not support our minimum safety legislation?
‘We all know why… it’s because he’s on the side of his union paymasters, not patients.’
Official figures show that the unions have handed Labour more than £15million since Sir Keir became leader in 2023. The unions behind today’s ambulance strikes are among the party’s biggest donors.
Union leaders have vowed to fight the legislation in the courts and ‘in the streets’. Sir Keir pledged that a future Labour government would repeal the new law before it had even been published.
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But Labour leader insisted his opposition to the minimum service levels legislation was based on concerns it would inflame the situation.
He told MPs: ‘His own assessments say it could increase the number of strikes. The simple truth is you can’t legislate your way out of 13 years of failure.’
Ministers are set to sit down with various unions today in a bid to avert future strikes.
But talks with medics, particularly those from the British Medical Association (BMA), which represents doctors, may start on a sour note after Steve Barclay cancelled a meeting on Wednesday in favour of conducting media interviews.
The Health Secretary is set to meet with BMA representatives along with the hospital doctors’ union HCSA and the British Dental Association on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a strike by 100,000 civil servants is to go ahead next month after talks with the Government aimed at resolving a bitter dispute over pay, jobs and conditions were dubbed a ‘total farce’.
Cabinet Office Minister Jeremy Quin met with union leaders to discuss growing industrial unrest after weeks of stoppages across the country, including by Border Force staff over Christmas.
Unions had made it clear more money would have to be offered to head off an escalation of stoppages.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), said: ‘This meeting was a total farce. Despite being well-trailed by the Government as a chance to resolve the crisis, it was nothing of the sort because the minister had nothing to offer.
‘He didn’t deny our members were being offered less than anyone else, he didn’t deny tens of thousands of our members only get a pay rise because of the rise in the national minimum wage but he refused to give us a pay rise now.’
Officials from the Rail Delivery Group will meet with the Rail, Maritime and Transport union and Transport Salaried Staffs Association in a fresh bid to break the deadlock.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper raised hopes of a breakthrough within ‘days’ as he confirmed a ‘renewed offer’ was on the table ahead of the talks.
The unions have made it clear they need a new offer on pay, jobs and conditions before the dispute can end.
The meetings come after 14 health unions announced that they will not be submitting evidence to the NHS pay review body for the next wage round while the current industrial disputes remain unresolved.
The 14 unions, representing more than one million ambulance staff, nurses, porters, healthcare assistants, physiotherapists and other NHS workers in England, have called for direct pay talks with ministers.
Unions said they believe the lengthy pay review body process is not able to deliver a deal that resolves the current pay and staffing dispute, which has led to a series of strikes.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: ‘For NHS leaders there is a real fear that the risk to patients will only intensify with future strikes, including for nurses and physiotherapists planned in the coming weeks, and no sign of resolution on the horizon.
‘In what is by far the toughest winter in the NHS for a decade, and set against the perfect storm of rising levels of winter illnesses including Covid and flu and huge staff vacancies, the Government must not turn a blind eye on the situation.
‘It must reach an agreement with trade unions as soon as possible.’
