Season Of Ill Will: Sunak On The Spot Over Winter Strikes

Ambulance workers join nurses and rail staff in taking action

- Andrew Woodcock Political Editor

Rishi Sunak is under pressure to intervene and stop a wave of strikes threatening a winter of discontent this Christmas. Last hopes of averting walkouts by rail workers next week were dashed after a deadline for agreement passed without the resolution of a row over pay and working practices.

Unions also announced coordinated strikes by healthcare staff, including ambulance workers, on 21 and 28 December – with nurses staging walkouts later this month for the first time in generations. Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said that turmoil on the railways was “a shambles of the government’s own making”, while the party’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting accused ministers of seeking to use striking health workers as a “scapegoat” for chaos in the NHS.

But health secretary Steve Barclay insisted his “door is open” for discussions with health workers. And Mr Sunak’s official spokesperson said the power to avoid disruption “rests with the unions”. Downing Street said that “significant planning meetings” were under way across government to manage potential disruption.

Unions said ministers could stop the NHS strikes “in a heartbeat” if they would get involved in negotiations on pay. And RMT union chief Mick Lynch said rail employers’ hands were tied by ministers who would not allow them to make a “suitable” offer. Representing trust leaders, the interim chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery, said the announcement of stoppage dates “underlines the sheer urgency of the need for government and union leaders to get around the table to find a solution to avert these strikes”.