Rishi Sunak says anti-strike laws 'entirely reasonable' after union backlash

Thank you for joining me for today's politics live blog. 

I will be back early on Monday morning. 

The Unite union has responded to Rishi Sunak's invitation to strike talks on Monday by warning the Government must be willing to discuss this year's pay offer rather than trying to shift the debate onto next year's pay settlement. 

A Unite spokesman said: "Unite has made it crystal clear that it is fully prepared to enter into negotiations at any time to resolve the ongoing NHS pay dispute.

"However, if the Government thinks they can kick the current pay dispute into the long grass by trying to change the focus onto next year’s pay [it] is delusional.

"Next year’s pay can be negotiated once the Government protects the integrity of the NHS and patient safety by making a fair pay offer for this year to health workers."

Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, said he wants the next submission to the independent pay review body for NHS staff for the 2023/24 pay settlement to reflect both the pressure on health workers and what is "affordable to the wider economy". 

Speaking during a visit to Watford today, Mr Barclay was asked if a 10 per cent pay rise for nurses would be acceptable to the Government (see the post below at 10.15). 

He said: "The RCN [Royal College of Nursing] actually turned down an offer in Scotland which was 7.5 per cent, and significantly more than 10 per cent if you looked at the other things within that package.

"The key thing is to look at the coming year, the pay review body will be looking at the pressure of the cost of living, the pressure of inflation, the scope for us to see how we make that more affordable by working together on issues of productivity, on issues of efficiency." 

He added: "It is important we work together to ensure that the evidence that goes to the independent pay review body reflects the pressure that the NHS is under, but also what is affordable to the wider economy."

The Government's social mobility tsar has quit the role, saying she comes with "too much baggage" and was doing "more harm than good".

Katharine Birbalsingh, who was appointed chair of the Social Mobility Commission in 2021, said that some of her "controversial" statements had put the commission in "jeopardy", leaving her with little choice but to step down.

Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch said Alun Francis, the principal of Oldham College and deputy chair of the commission, would take on the role on an interim basis.

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross has said it is "completely bonkers" that Holyrood’s first debate after the Christmas break will be about Scottish independence and not the "crisis" in the NHS.

The Scottish Conservative chief hit out at the SNP/Green Government in Edinburgh for making the first debate of 2023 about Scotland’s constitutional future.

He said the NHS in Scotland was in "the grip of a winter crisis" with waiting times "spiralling" and staff left "overworked".

Welsh ambulance workers in the Unite union are to stage two strikes in a dispute over pay and staffing.

Members of the union at the Welsh Ambulance Service will walk out on January 19 and 23 for 24 hours, but will continue to provide cover for life-threatening incidents.

Unite, which represents more than 1,000 members in the service, said 88 per cent voted to strike over a below-inflation pay offer from the Welsh Government.

Businesses face a stark drop in support with energy bills from April with the Treasury planning to slash the budget to a seventh of what it was, The Telegraph can reveal. 

Number 10 and Number 11 have agreed to abandon the cap on the cost of gas and electricity for companies from the spring, replacing it instead with a discount.

The Treasury had set aside £18 billion to protect firms from energy price rises over a six-month period this winter, lasting from the start of last October to the end of March.

But The Telegraph has learned that the budget for protecting energy bills for the next 12 months after that, including next winter, is due to fall to just around £5 billion. 

You can read the full story here. 

The Health Secretary said he is "keen to have dialogue" with the nursing unions after being asked whether suggestions of a 10 per cent pay rise for nurses were a basis for getting around the negotiating table.

Speaking to journalists during a visit to Watford today, Steve Barclay said: "I am keen to have dialogue with Pat Cullen and the RCN [Royal College of Nursing].

"I wrote to them last week looking at the coming year, at the pressures from inflation and the cost of living, how we could work together to make any settlement more affordable in terms of looking at what productivity opportunities there are, what efficiency opportunities there are.

"There is common ground in recognising the NHS is under pressure and we need to respond to that. I look forward to talking with the RCN and the other trade unions to see how we make any settlement done through the independent pay review body more affordable, where are those productivity and efficiency opportunities."

Junior doctors will walk out for three days in March if their ballot for strikes succeeds, the British Medical Association has said.

The union said such action would start with “full walkouts” - including the removal of emergency cover - for 72 hours.

BMA leaders have already said that junior doctors are “very likely” to vote in favour of strikes, as part of a campaign to see pay rise by more than one quarter.

You can read the full story here. 

Rishi Sunak's invitation to union leaders to hold strike talks on Monday is "too little too late", according to the Liberal Democrats. 

Christine Jardine, the party's Cabinet Office spokeswoman, said: "This is too little too late. People have already died waiting for ambulances because of these harmful strikes, all because Rishi Sunak refused to get around the table with workers.

"Businesses have lost money and commuters have been unable to get into work after weeks of chaos. The human cost and economic damage of these strikes has been devastating. 

"Rishi Sunak should apologise to the country for taking so long to do the right thing and properly sit down and negotiate."

Liz Truss "wasn't wrong" to stress the importance of economic growth during her premiership and the Tories must now show "energy" in "tackling the systemic problems that still exist in our economy", a former Cabinet minister has said. 

Sir Robert Buckland told Times Radio: "I'm supportive of the Prime Minister... but having said that, you know what Liz Truss and others said back in the summer wasn't wrong. 

"And I think there's a consensus within the Conservative Party that we do need to be removing the obstacles to growth, those so called supply side reforms, which I think make a lot of people scratch their heads when you use that jargon, let's talk about removing obstacles to growth, particularly for those smaller businesses that can get going, get a decent turnover, but find it difficult then to make that move into the next stage and employing more people. 

"I think the word for this year must be energy, we've got to show a degree of energy and commitment to tackling the systemic problems that still exist in our economy and in our public services, and show a resolution to not just grip them, which I think is really important from a practical point of view, but to offer a prospectus as to what a Conservative government post 2024 is going to do to reform and improve these services."

Sir Robert said that he believes "there is time for the Conservatives to once again show that we are the party with solutions".

Sir Robert Buckland, the Tory former Cabinet minister, said the Government's new "minimum service levels" legislation to curb the impact of strikes is "distinct" from the issue of nurses' pay. 

He told Times Radio: "I think the issue of minimum service levels... is distinct from the argument here that is being held over nurses' pay.

"They are two separate issues. I think the public recognise that which is why you see a lot more public support for the nurses' position as opposed to, I think the very clear lack of support for the continuing action of the RMT for example."

Sir Robert Buckland, the Tory former Cabinet minister, has suggested the Government should seek to agree a "bespoke arrangement" with nurses to ease cost of living pressures in the short term and avert further strike action. 

Sir Robert told Times Radio: "There should be a middle way. I think that some sort of bespoke arrangement does seem to me to make sense. Otherwise, you're upending the whole structure to deal with a problem now, you know, I think we've got to draw a distinction between the short term pressure that is clearly there at the moment, and then the longer term issues that the Government have said they want to address via a Workforce Strategy, which we've been waiting for.

"It's clear that there are long term issues here that need to be sorted out. But in the meantime, you know, some middle way I think, would be sensible. And that's why I thought Pat Cullen's observations were significant."

Rishi Sunak said the NHS is "obviously under enormous pressure" at the moment but said people should "rest assured" that he is "fully committed" to tackling waiting lists. 

The Prime Minister said: "The NHS is obviously under enormous pressure as we recover from Covid and I have enormous admiration for all the people working incredibly hard in the NHS right now to help get us through that. 

"We are supporting them with billions of pounds of extra funding but in particular this winter hat we want to do is make sure that we move people out of hospitals into social care, into communities, that is one of the most powerful ways we can ease some of the pressures on A&E departments and ambulances that are waiting too long."

Rishi Sunak has declined to comment on the impact on the royal family of the revelations that have emerged so far from the Duke of Sussex and his soon-to-be-released autobiography.

The Prime Minister told broadcasters: "As you would expect, it is not appropriate for me to comment on matters to do with the royal family."

One of the sticking points in the wide ranging dispute over public sector pay rises is that the unions want to talk about the pay rise given to workers this year while the Government is only willing to talk about next year's pay settlement for 2023/24. 

The Government made clear yesterday that the talks it is offering to hold with union leaders would only focus on the pay settlements for 2023/24. 

However, Rishi Sunak appeared to be unwilling to say that publicly when asked this morning if this year's pay settlements could be discussed. 

He told broadcasters: "What we have said is we want to have a grown up, honest conversation with all union leaders about what is responsible, what is reasonable and what is affordable for our country when it comes to pay. 

"We think those conversations should happen, that is why we have invited everyone in to have those talks on Monday and I am hopeful that those talks can be constructive and we can find a way through this."

Rishi Sunak has refused to be drawn on whether the Government could budge on the pay offer made to nurses after the Royal College of Nursing suggested it could be willing to accept an increase of about 10 per cent (see the post below at 10.15). 

Mr Sunak simply maintained his position that the Government's priority is to tackle inflation.

The Prime Minister said: "We have always been clear that we want to have a grown up, honest conversation, a two-way conversation, with union leaders and that is why the Government has written, all departments have written to all their unions, inviting them in for talks on Monday so that we can have those conversations, talking about what is affordable, what is reasonable, what is responsible for our country. 

"I think everyone agrees that the most pressing economic priority we have is reducing the cost of living and getting a grip of inflation is the best way we can do that to ease the cost of living not only for nurses but for everyone and that is why earlier this week I made five promises about what I wanted to do and that was to halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists and stop the boats."

Rishi Sunak has defended the Government's new anti-strike laws following a backlash from unions as the Prime Minister insisted the measures are "entirely reasonable". 

Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to a school in south west London this morning, Mr Sunak said: "I fully believe in the unions’ role in our society and the freedom for them to strike but I also believe that that should be balanced with the right of ordinary working people to go about their lives, free from significant disruption. 

"That is why we are going to bring forward new laws, in common with countries like France, Italy, Spain and others, that ensure we have minimum levels of safety in critical areas like fire, like ambulance, so that even when strikes are going on you know that your health will be protected. 

"I think that is entirely reasonable and that is what our new laws will do."

The Government has invited "all union leaders" in for crunch talks on public sector pay disputes on Monday next week, Rishi Sunak has announced. 

Speaking during a visit to a school in south west London, the Prime Minister said he is hoping there will be a "grown up conversation" about what is affordable. 

He said: "With regard to strikes, yesterday the Government wrote to all union leaders, inviting them in for talks on Monday. 

"We incredibly value the important work that our public sector workers do, especially our nurses, and we want to have an honest, grown up conversation about what is affordable, what is responsible for the country. 

"Those invitations have gone out and I am hopeful that those meetings can happen on Monday so we can have a productive conversation and find a way through this."

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has claimed the Government is "incapable of understanding the railway". 

Speaking from the picket line at Euston Station in central London this morning, he told the PA news agency: "The railway service is in desperate straits.

"The companies that run it and the Government that oversees it have shown that they are incompetent and incapable of understanding the railway and running the railway on a daily basis.

"When we are not on strike, the passengers are told, in this station and every other station, that due to shortages of staff trains aren’t running. At the same time, they say to me at the negotiating table that they want to make thousands of your members redundant.

“So, there is something desperately wrong with the way this railway is being run. But there is something desperately wrong with the way all public services are being run, and that’s why the workforce in these services are in rebellion now."

Pat Cullen, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, has suggested the union could be willing to accept a pay rise of 10 per cent after she called on the Government to meet it "halfway" on its request for a 19 per cent rise (you can read the story in full here). 

Pat McFadden, Labour's shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, was asked if Labour would agree to such an increase but he would not be drawn. 

He said: "I am not a party to the negotiations so I don’t want to pick a percentage out of the air."

He added: "We said that the RCN were unlikely to get a pay rise of the size that they were asking but the way that these things are always resolved is a union may ask for a particular percentage… the management may offer a particular percentage and usually these things are resolved round the negotiating table with not everybody getting what they wanted at the start. The problem at the moment is that kind of discussion is not taking place."

Pat McFadden, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said he believes the Government's new anti-strike laws will be "destructive" and could make staffing problems in the NHS worse. 

He said: "Let’s follow the logic of the Government’s argument. Their argument is for example that if a nurse who voted for strike action didn;’t comply with this that nurse would be fired. 

"Is that really the way forward in the current disputes? To threaten to fire nurses who are engaging in the first nationwide industrial action of this kind in decades? 

"I don’t think we need to be firing nurses, I think we need to be hiring nurses at the moment. I think we need to be solving the staffing shortages in the NHS, not making them worse. 

"So I think this legislation is going to be destructive, not a solution to the current problems."

Pat McFadden, Labour's shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, suggested the Government had brought forward its anti-strikes laws for "political reasons", describing them as a "legislative weapon". 

He told the BBC: "This legislation, even if it was enacted, it wouldn’t have an impact on these current disputes and that has been admitted by the Transport Secretary himself. 

"So you wonder why, other than for political reasons, the Government is reaching for a legislative weapon which its own secretary of state says wouldn’t work in the context of the current disputes."

Pat McFadden, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said the Government is "striking a pose when it should be striking a deal" by bringing forward anti-strikes legislation at a time when there are numerous rumbling public sector disputes.

The Labour frontbencher told BBC Breakfast: "Well, the Government by reaching for legislation in the middle of this series of disputes is striking a pose when it should be striking a deal and the way out of this current series of disputes is to negotiate, not to legislate. 

"No one wants to see these strikes, they are causing ongoing significant disruption for the public and the  way to resolve them at the end of the day is to negotiate a deal that will get the railways running again, get the nurses back to work and get the people back to work in the other sectors where industrial action is taking place."

Rail passengers are facing a fourth consecutive day of travel disruption today as RMT members stage their latest walkout in a dispute over pay and conditions. 

Staff have walked out at Network Rail and 14 train operators in action which will last for 48 hours. It follows a strike yesterday by train drivers in the Alsef union. 

The RMT is yet to set out further strike dates and Mick Lynch, the union's general secretary, said this morning that decisions on further potential walkouts will be taken next week. 

He told BBC Breakfast: "We will review it next week. We are talking to our members right now. The action is firm. 

"We will talk to our members about what they want to do next but of course we will have to reflect on what the Government ministers say and what plans they have got to develop the talks following the meeting on Monday."

New anti-strike laws will make the British people "less free", according to Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT union. 

Told that the Government's proposals will make his life harder, Mr Lynch told BBC Breakfast: "Well, that is what it is designed to do but it will also make the British people less free. 

"It is really important in a democratic society that we have free trade unions that can represent working people and represent the biggest democratic force in this country." 

He added: "If they have their rights suppressed, all of us have our rights oppressed. What this is a symbol of is the Government losing the argument."

Mick Lynch suggested parts of the Government's new anti-strike laws "could be completely illegal under the Human Rights Act". 

The general secretary of the RMT said: "We will have to see what it says. The devil will be in the detail. They are saying it will affect every public service, they are going to target the railways it seems at the first level. 

"But I think it will mean that many of our members will not have the right to strike because if you are operating a signalling system you have got to operate the whole system so they will say you have to go to work. 

"Now we will have to see if that is compliant with international law. We don’t think it is. We have got QCs’ opinion that tells us that much of what they have got in mind could be completely illegal under the Human Rights Act and under the international labour convention. 

"It is up to them what they put into their drafts and we will have to see what we can do about it when it comes forward."

Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT, said the Government's anti-strike laws will "make a bad situation even worse" and likely force unions to take other action.

He told BBC Breakfast: "I don’t think it would be implausible, it will make strikes and industrial action completely entrenched. 

"It will make them worse. We will have to resort to work to rule, we will have to resort to long term overtime bans, partial strikes that will mean that disputes will become intractable probably and it may have completely the opposite effect that this Government is saying. 

"We have got colleagues from France today and they are saying that the legislation in France is not as described, the way that Mr Shapps is describing it, and in fact it has never been enforced and it is the union that sets the minimum service that they want to provide. 

"They need to think again about this before they make a bad situation even worse."

Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT union, said the Government's new anti-strike laws would effectively mean workers would be forced to cross a picket line against their wishes. 

He told BBC Breakfast: "What they are saying is that they will sack our members if they don’t go to work, they are going to conscript our members. 

"We have to name who will go to work and if those members in a lawful ballot don’t want to cross that picket line they can be dismissed individually and the union can be fined. 

"We will have to see what the law says but it is not as described."

Good morning and welcome to today's politics live blog. 

Rishi Sunak's new anti-strike laws which were unveiled yesterday afternoon continue to dominate the agenda in Westminster as union bosses continue to digest what the measures could mean for future industrial action. 

Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT union has just been on BBC Breakfast, giving his response to the proposals while Labour's shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Pat McFadden is also on the morning round to give his opinion. 

I will guide you through the key developments.