Rishi Sunak is under growing pressure to intervene and stop a wave of strikes threatening a new 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.
And unions announced coordinated strikes by healthcare staff, including ambulance workers, on 21 and 28 December – the first of them coming a day after the first stoppage by nurses 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”.
And doctors’ union the British Medical Association also called on ministers to get involved. BMA chair Professor Philip Banfield said: “Only by listening to and negotiating in good faith with NHS staff will the government have any hope of repairing a health system it has left in dire straits.”
Expected talks between the RMT and employers did not materialise on Tuesday, as the clock ticked down towards a deadline after which the Rail Delivery Group – representing train operating companies – said it would no longer be able to avoid disruption to services, because of the need to get trains, fuel and staff in place for reduced strike-day timetables.
At the end of the afternoon, Mr Lynch emerged from RMT headquarters to tell waiting reporters: “The strikes are going ahead because we haven’t had no meetings so far.”
Workers will walk out across 14 rail companies on 13-14 and 16-17 December, after the RMT rejected an offer of 8 per cent over two years. Meanwhile, the union’s members in Network Rail will decide early next week whether to back a leadership recommendation of a 60-hour stoppage over Christmas Day mainly affecting engineering works.
Downing Street urged the RMT to follow the lead of the TSSA (Transport Salaried Staff Association), which accepted Network Rail’s offer of 5 per cent this year and 4 per cent next and no compulsory redundancies until 2025.
Mr Sunak’s official spokesperson said: “It’s incredibly disappointing that the RMT has chosen to take further damaging action instead of recognising this is a generous and fair deal that could have brought this dispute to an end.
“We believe the RMT need to take this offer seriously. We’ve been fair and reasonable in our approach, we’ve facilitated the sort of offer the RMT has been calling for.”
But Mr Lynch said ministers were to blame for stalemate in the dispute, claiming that employers told him in talks that “the government will not allow me to make a suitable proposal”.
The RMT boss told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The government are running the playbook and the strategy for the railway companies and directing what is going on. They have held back even these paltry offers to the last minute.”
But government minister Nick Gibb accused unions of trying to “hold the country to ransom” at a time when millions of Britons want to visit family and friends or go out to celebrate.
And business minister Lord Callanan said rail workers seemed to be “possibly enjoying their right to inflict damage on the public”.
Coordinated industrial action in the NHS on 21 December will involve thousands of staff belonging to the GMB, Unison and Unite unions, including more than 11,000 ambulance staff across nine trusts in England and Wales.
Paramedics, emergency care assistants, call handlers and other staff will also walk out on 28 December. Union representatives will now meet with individual trusts to discuss requirements for life-and-limb cover.
GMB national secretary Rachel Harrison said: “After 12 years of Conservative cuts to the service and their pay packets, NHS staff have had enough. The last thing they want to do is take strike action but the government has left them with no choice.
“Steve Barclay needs to listen and engage with us about pay. If he can’t talk to us about this most basic workforce issue, what on earth is the health secretary for?
“The government could stop this strike in a heartbeat – but they need to wake up and start negotiating on pay.”
Unite’s Sharon Graham said: “Make no mistake, we are now in the fight of our lives for the very NHS itself. These strikes are a stark warning – our members are taking a stand to save our NHS from this government.
“Patients’ lives are already at risk but this government is sitting on the sidelines, dodging its responsibility to sort out the crisis that it has created. Fail to act now to avert these strikes and the blame will rest firmly at the government’s door.”
Mr Barclay told the House of Commons he was “very happy to engage with unions” over work conditions as well as pay.
“My door is open. I have been very clear with the trade unions I am available,” he said. “I am available to see them this afternoon or tomorrow. It is not me that set a precondition on those talks.”
But Mr Streeting retorted: “We get the warm words about wanting to negotiate but a government source briefed last week that his plan is to wait for public sentiment to turn against striking nurses.
“He knows this winter is going to be the most difficult the NHS has ever faced and he is using nurses as a scapegoat to avoid the blame. That is the shameful truth, isn’t it?”
