The Daily Mail has saught to blame the Labour Party for the UK’s current woes – despite the country being led by the Conservatives for the past 12 years.
Train services will continue to be disrupted on Wednesday by this week’s rail strikes as talks resume in a bid to resolve a bitter dispute over jobs, pay and conditions.
Fewer than one in five trains ran on Tuesday after members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) on Network Rail (NR) and 13 train operators staged the first of three walkouts, with strikes set to follow on Thursday and Saturday.
RMT members on London Underground also went on strike on Tuesday.
The joint action caused travel chaos across the UK, with journeys taking longer and roads rammed with traffic as people switched to cars or buses to get to work.
The chaos will continue on Wednesday, with only 60 per cent of trains running, mainly due to a delay to the start of services as signallers and control room staff are not doing overnight shifts.
The RMT will meet with NR and the train companies on Wednesday in another attempt to break the deadlock.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said the turnout at picket lines on Tuesday was “fantastic” and had exceeded expectations in the union’s campaign for job security, defending conditions and a decent pay rise.
In a headline that appeared to be from a parallel universe, the Daily Mail hit out at the Labour Party for the disruption.
Telling readers that “Labour isn’t working”, the right-wing rag hit out at Sir Keir Starmer for hiding away at a time of protest.
It also featured pictures of Labour MPs who had joined the picket line.
Sir Keir had warned his frontbenchers to stay away from the protests this week.
In a letter, shadow cabinet ministers were told:
“We have robust lines. We do not want to see these strikes to go ahead with the resulting disruption to the public. The government have failed to engage in any negotiations,” the memo from the leader’s office read.
But it added: “However, we also must show leadership and to that end, please be reminded that frontbenchers including [parliamentary private secretaries] should not be on picket lines.
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