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Senior Labour MP John McDonnell says he supports a general strike and criticised Sir Keir Starmer for sacking a junior minister after he stood on the picket line during yesterday’s rail strike.
Mr McDonnell, who was shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, told Sky News the Labour Party should be supporting the strikes as rail workers call for a pay rise in line with inflation.
He told Sky News that Labour leader Sir Keir has “misread the public mood” by failing to have specific targets on what workers should be paid and questioned who is advising him.
The Labour stalwart also said the party should be supporting the strikes and there should be a general strike if no progress is made.
The last time a general strike – where workers of different industries coordinate strike action – took place was in 1926 and was the only one that has ever taken place in the UK.
Mr McDonnell told Sky News’ Kay Burley: “I support coordinated action because if that results in a decent pay rise for people that protect against the cost of living crisis, I think that’s the most effective thing to do.
“But this is completely unnecessary, what it needs is the government to recognise you can’t expect people to have to stand to one side when their wages have been cut.”
He added that he has “never seen this level of anger but also this level of solidarity, wave after wave of trade unions”.
There have already been, or will be, strikes by Post Office workers, rail, tram and bus workers, bin lorry workers, airline and BT Broadband staff this summer.
Mick Lynch, head of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, called on Wednesday for a general strike in retaliation to the government’s threat to curb industrial action, warning of “the biggest resistance mounted by the entire trade union movement”.
Simon Weller, assistant general secretary of the…
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Source : skynews
