If Labour wants to succeed, it needs to learn to say 'No'

The ending of two major disputes should be applauded but the government must be prepared to stand firm in future to protect the economy and public services, says Andrew Grice

- Andrew Grice

A Labour government hands inflation-busting pay rises to public sector workers and gives the trade unions a seat at the table with employers to discuss a radical extension of workplace rights and the repeal of some Conservative strike laws. On the face of it, it looks like a return to the 1970s – hardly a parallel Keir Starmer wants, given that the decade ended with the 1978-79 “winter of discontent” and the fall of James Callaghan’s government.

The Tories will certainly talk up the similarities. They landed their first successful blow on Labour since the election by accusing ministers of putting rail unions ahead of the pensioners who will lose the winter fuel allowance, after train drivers won a 15 per cent pay rise.

Yet the parallels are misleading. Labour is right to bring an end to the strikes by junior doctors and rail workers, which cost an estimated £1.7bn and £850m respectively, lengthened NHS waiting lists, and caused misery for train passengers. These two marathon disputes were solved quickly because Labour ministers sat around the table with the unions, which their Tory predecessors refused to do.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, taunts the Tories by saying it took him 14 days to end 14 years of Tory hostility towards the junior doctors. The endless strikes contributed to a sense that “nothing works” in “broken Britain” and damaged Rishi Sunak’s party at the election.