Markus Andrews

The biggest rail strikes for 30 years are “likely to go ahead”, a Treasury minister says, as he rejected calls for the government to try to settle the dispute.Ministers are under fire over their boycott of the talks, a senior Conservative MP joining Labour and the Trades Union Congress in calling for the government to get around the negotiating table.But Simon Clarke insisted it was up to “the employers” to conduct the talks – despite the railways being effectively state run since the franchising system was abandoned when Covid struck.“I fear it is likely they will go ahead,” the chief secretary to the Treasury said, as 40,000 rail workers prepare to strike on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday this week, in a dispute that could last for the rest of the year.Mr Clarke also warned public-sector workers to prepare for real-terms pay cuts, as awards loom for teachers and NHS staff and they also consider strike action.He revealed those awards are coming in at “sensible levels” – code for increases far below an inflation rate set to hit 11 per cent – while refusing to reveal any details.“We have an inflation problem in this country,” the Treasury minister told Sky News, adding: “If we don’t want that problem to either intensify or prolong itself, then we need to be sensible around pay awards.”Steve Montgomery, chair of the Rail Delivery Group, representing track operator Network Rail and the passenger companies, said it had not “put a pay offer on the table yet”.Only about 20 per cent of trains are expected to run on strike days, with disruption set to extend over six days in total, starting on Monday evening.The action is being taken by Network Rail employees, as well as by onboard and station staff working for 13 train operators in England.It involves rail cleaners, customer service assistants and ticket office staff, who all earn much less rail workers and will be hit hardest by real-terms wage cuts.The RMT union has said that, as well as pay cuts during a time of soaring inflation, thousands of jobs are at risk in maintenance roles and that ticket office closures are planned.Jake Berry, a Conservative MP and former rail minister, has called for ministers to get involved in the talks – as they instead seek to exploit Labour’s links with the unions to win the blame game.But Mr Clarke insisted it was “quite proper” for the legal employers to lead the talks, adding: “It will only confuse tings if we add a third party to these negotiations.”But he also demanded reform, saying: “The way our rail network operates is not fit for the 2020s and it’s in nobody’s interest that that continues.”Asked if the UK is heading for a ‘Summer of Discontent’, Mr Clarke replied: “I very much hope not.” More

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has revealed that he had cancer and has since recovered.The Conservative MP said every member of his family has had cancer, affecting some relatives “very dramatically”.He revealed he suffered a “minor” battle with the disease and said he will be taking part in a 5km race to raise money for Cancer Research UK in its Race for Life this summer.The South West Surrey MP will be among thousands running in Stoke Park, Guildford, on 24 July.Mr Hunt, currently Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, said: “Every member of my family has had cancer. I have had a minor one myself which has fortunately been resolved.“So it’s touched my family very dramatically and I know it has touched many many families.“My work on the Select Committee has shown me there are lot of things we can do to improve our cancer survival rates.“They are getting better but the more we can do to raise money and raise awareness, the more lives we’ll save.”The 55-year-old MP will be running with cancer survivor Rod Pluthero, 73, and fellow Tory MP Angela Richardson, 47. More

Britain’s children are suffering a mental health emergency, with rising numbers self-harming and having suicidal thoughts because of the cost of living crisis, a report claims.Researchers found millions of youngsters are “at breaking point”, with stress and anxiety among children reaching “alarming” levels because of the effect of rising bills.Children are so worried that nearly one in 10 (9 per cent) has started self-harming, and 8 per cent have shown suicidal tendencies, according to the study.At least half (53 per cent) of people questioned by researchers said they knew someone who had taken their own lives, had attempted it or had thought about it.A nine-year-old girl told the study team: “Your emotions just drown you and the only emotion that’s left is sad.”A seven-year-old said: “When I feel hungry, I ask my mother if we have any food and then she’ll tell me if there’s enough money or not. If there isn’t, I just go in the cupboards and see if there’s something and if there’s a snack, then I’ll just eat it and try to go to bed. Tomorrow she might have some more money.”The Childhood Trust, a London child poverty charity, said the persistent anxiety for both their own and their parents’ wellbeing, as well as a lack of basics such as food and toiletries, was taking a “highly emotional toll” on children and had long-term impacts on their mental health.The trust collected data from a national survey, other London charities, and interviews with parents and children living in poverty to compile the report. In all, 2,002 adults were interviewed, of whom 1,468 were parents.Nearly half of the parents questioned – 47 per cent – said their children were stressed out about the cost of living.A third said their children had raised concerns about it and a quarter said they needed to sacrifice fun activities to afford essentials.One in five parents – 21 per cent – said their children smile less now.Children already in poverty before the Covid pandemic feel unable to further burden their already stressed parents with their own worries, the trust said.Nine out of 10 London charities questioned said the financial situation of their most vulnerable clients had worsened in the past six months.Some 85 per cent of charities predicted more demand for their services due to food poverty over the next six months.Laurence Guinness, chief executive of the Childhood Trust, said: “Ever-increasing numbers of children are going hungry and can’t sleep at night because they’re worried and anxious about their futures.“It’s only thanks to the generosity of donors and the thousands of charities supporting children that we aren’t facing a humanitarian crisis on our own doorsteps.”The government says eight million of the most vulnerable UK households will benefit from a new £15bn package of targeted support, worth at least £1,200 this year, including a new one-off £650 cost-of-living payment.The October discount on energy bills has been doubled as part of a £37bn support package, and universal credit claimants are being allowed to keep £1,000 more of what they earn, the Treasury says.Last month chancellor Rishi Sunak also announced a £500m increase in the Household Support Fund, extending it from October until March next year.If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email [email protected], or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you. More

Britain’s major trade unions are collectively urging the government to “get round” the negotiating table to try to find a resolution, 24 hours ahead of the biggest strike action on the rail network for decades.In a letter to Grant Shapps, the general secretaries of 14 unions – which between them represent millions of workers, including civil servants, shopworkers, teachers and NHS staff – have warned that ministers must stop their “attempts to divide workers”. The general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Frances O’Grady, who is one of the signatories of the letter, also accused the government of “fanning the flames” of the dispute, and insisted ministers had the power to help find a settlement.It comes after Mr Shapps, the transport secretary, warned the country’s biggest rail union that the disruption would be a “huge act of self-harm” for the industry, and claimed that the unions had been “gunning” for action that would “punish millions of innocent people”.Mr Shapps also said that calls by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) for ministers to intervene in talks over workers’ conditions were a “stunt”, adding that only the union and the employer would be able to settle the dispute.Without an 11th-hour resolution, members of the RMT working for Network Rail and for 13 train operators will walk out this week, on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. They will be joined on the first day of action by workers on the London Underground.In the letter to Mr Shapps, the general secretaries of 14 trade unions, including the National Education Union (NEU), Unison, Unite, GMB, and the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), said: “The trade union movement will never accept attempts to divide workers from one another.“With household bills and prices skyrocketing, of course workers will seek to defend jobs, pay and conditions. The right to withdraw your labour is a fundamental British liberty.”Calling on the government to intervene, they added: “Our rail unions are seeking a negotiated settlement to this dispute, and we urge you to get round the table with unions and employers to help deliver a fair resolution.”Ms O’Grady also claimed that ministers are “desperate to pitch worker against worker” in the bitter dispute.In recent days, individual cabinet ministers, along with the Conservative Party, have attempted to brand the industrial action “Labour’s strikes” in social media posts, claiming the action will “prevent doctors, nurses and patients getting to hospital”.But Ms O’Grady said: “Rather than fanning the flames of this dispute, the government should be working in good faith to find a negotiated settlement. They have the power to do this.”In a separate letter to Mr Shapps, Labour’s shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said “you cannot wash your hands of responsibility”. She added: “The only way to sort this out is for your government to stop boycotting the talks and get around the table. With just 24 hours to go, it’s time to show some leadership to avoid the strike.”Speaking on Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme, however, Mr Shapps said: “The trade unions know that only the trade union and the employer can settle this. I will not cut across that.”Grant Shapps says RMT union are ‘gunning’ for strikesHe claimed: “This is a stunt at the 11th hour by the union, suddenly coming forward and saying ‘We need to negotiate with the government now,’ even though this last month they told me they wouldn’t be seen dead negotiating with the government.”The cabinet minister added: “I think it is a huge act of self-harm to go on strike at the moment. I don’t believe the workers are anywhere as militant as their unions, who are leading them up the garden path. They are gunning for this strike. It is completely unnecessary.”But Tory MP Jake Berry, the chair of the influential Northern Research Group (NRG) of backbench Conservatives, urged the government and other parties to “get around the table” in order to prevent the “huge negative impact” of the planned strike action.RMT union boss accuses Grant Shapps of ‘fabricating’ details over talksHe told Times Radio: “What’s the alternative? The only way this will be sorted out is by people sitting down with, I don’t know, cold beer and sandwiches. I don’t know if they still do that any more. But sitting down and sorting this out.”A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “The unions know negotiations over pay and working practices don’t happen with the government – they happen with the employers of the people they represent.“In this case, that’s Network Rail and the train operating companies, so even an hour spent talking to ministers would just be time they could be speaking to the people they really need to.“Ministers remain extremely close to the issues on both sides of this dispute and the latest in the ongoing discussions taking place. We would once again urge the unions to prioritise talks and call off these unnecessary strikes.”On Sunday, Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT, insisted the union had no choice but to act given that the train operators had still not made a pay offer when talks were adjourned on Thursday.“What else are we to do? Are we to plead? Are we to beg? We want to bargain for our futures. We want to negotiate,” he told Sky News.He also suggested there would be more strikes if there was no settlement, and warned that unions representing other sectors across the country could ballot “because people can’t take it any more”.“We’ve got people doing full-time jobs who are having to take state benefits and use food banks. That is a national disgrace,” he said.Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union, representing teachers, also told The Observer at the weekend that his union planned to ballot its members unless it recieved a pay offer much closer to the rate of inflation by Wednesday. More

Conservative campaign leaflets and advertising for the upcoming by-elections reportedly omit any mention of Boris Johnson.A pamphlet distributed by Helen Hurford, the Tory candidate in Tiverton and Honiton, featured no reference to her party on the front page.The Telegraph reported that inside the pamphlet the Conservative party is not mentioned until page four, while the prime minister is not mentioned at all.A pamphlet distributed by Nadeem Ahmed, the Tory candidate in Wakefield, also featured no reference to Mr Johnson nor photos of him, the paper said.It also said six Facebook advertisements shared by Ms Hurford do not mention the prime minister and only refer to the Tory party to declare it as the source of funding.The prime minister’s reputation in the wake of the Partygate scandal has haunted the two by-election campaigns so far. Ms Hurford was recently booed by a crowd when she sidestepped a question about Mr Johnson’s moral character. She recently declined to say if he was honest during an interview with The Guardian. “I think Boris thinks that he is an honest person,” she said.When asked byThe Telegraph if she was a “Boris Johnson Conservative” she said “I’m a Helen Hurford Conservative”.In Wakefield, the Labour party said their most successful advert of the campaign has been one referrring to the recent vote of confidence in Mr Johnson in which 40 per cent of Conservative MPs voted against him. It comes as Tories have warned that defeats in the two by-elections on Thursday would further damage Mr Johnson’s authority as leader.MPs from across the party told The Independent they were privately expecting a “big defeat” in Wakefield, where a recent poll by JL Partners put Labour 20 points ahead in the West Yorkshire seat.A senior Tory MP said the loss of Tiverton and Honiton, where the party has a large majority, “would be a disaster”.Voters head to the polls in Yorkshire and Devon less than two weeks after the prime minister narrowly survived a confidence vote called amid an ivestigation into whether he misled parliament over his knowledge of parties in Downing Street during the Covid lockdown.Ms Hurford refused to say which side she would have taken in the confidence vote, labelling the question “irrelevant”.The Tiverton and Honiton candidate is defending a 24,239 majority that would require a 20-point-plus swing to the Lib Dems for the Tories to lose the seat. The Conservatives however fear a loss in Devon is well within likelihood.A senior MP said most of his colleagues expected a Lib Dem victory. “Look at North Shropshire. It’s a further opportunity for people to send a message to Downing Street that they are not happy,” they warned.The same MP said Wakefield was “gone, gone, gone”. Speaking to The Independent, polling expert Professor Sir John Curtice agreed, suggesting the party’s 3,358 majority was a “write-off”.He said it was “very difficult for any government to defend, and it doesn’t matter if it’s red wall, blue wall, pink wall, or purple wall, you only need a 3.5 per cent swing”. He added: “It should be inconceivable that the government hangs on to it.” More

Gordon Brown has predicted Boris Johnson will abandon a planned hike in corporation tax in the autumn, as he hit out at a government lurching from “crisis to crisis”.Issuing a warning about the potential for a “global recession”, the former Labour prime minister urged Mr Johnson to gather world leaders to establish a plan to tackle issues on food supply and inflation.Speaking after the Bank of England forecast inflation to reach 11 per cent in the autumn, Mr Brown also demanded ministers present a “fourth Budget” to parliament in 2022 to ease poverty and inflationary pressures.“There is no plan, there is no programme of action,” he claimed. “The government is going from crisis to crisis and scandal to scandal, we cannot see a way out of this, we will have pain now and pain later.“What we need is minimising pain now and maximising gain later.”Pressed on BBC’s Sunday Morning whether tax cuts are a way out of the crisis, Mr Brown replied: “I suspect that what the government will have to do in the autumn is abandon their corporate tax rise.“I suspect they’ll not be able to go ahead with their fuel tax rise because that’s another pressure on inflation.”Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, announced last year corporation tax would rise to 25 per cent from April 2023 – from a current rate of 19 per cent. However, there have been reports of a clash between the prime minister and the chancellor on the issue.Mr Brown said: “But what you need to do is look at a fair set of answers. The first thing they’ve go to do, I’ll be honest about this, I’m shocked by the fact so many families and children are going to be forced into poverty during this winter.”He said despite the chancellor’s interventions earlier this month, including one-off payments to those on benefits, millions of families will be in poverty.Mr Brown, who was prime minister during the global financial crash in 2008, said Mr Johnson really “ought to be getting world leaders and they should concoct a plan” to bring down oil prices, get food supply running around the world, and control inflation.“We’ve got protectionism, we’ve got war in Europe, we’ve got a form of jingoism and nationalism in different countries pursuing their own selfish interests, and we’re in danger of having a global recession.”The former PM’s comments also come as thousands of protesters marched in central London calling for further government action to ease the cost of living crisis and a “decent pay rise” for public sector workers. More

Labour frontbencher Lisa Nandy has dismissed as “absolute nonsense” claims that Sir Keir Starmer is making plans for who will succeed him as party leader in the event that he is forced to resign.The shadow levelling up secretary, who ran for the leadership in 2020, said she had held “no conversations about succession” with the Labour leader, as it was reported that he had met with members of the shadow cabinet to discuss the plans.Sir Keir has repeatedly insisted that no lockdown rules were broken when he had beer and a curry with staff after a day of campaigning in the run-up to the 2021 local elections, and is currently awaiting the outcome of a Durham Police inquiry into the incident.But the Labour leader and his deputy, Angela Rayner, who have called on Boris Johnson to step down as prime minister over lockdown-busting parties held at No 10, have both made clear that they will resign if issued with a fixed penalty notice.On Friday, a Labour spokesperson confirmed that Sir Keir and Ms Rayner had returned questionnaires to Durham Constabulary.Meanwhile, according to The Sunday Times, Sir Keir has begun making contingency plans in case he is issued with a fine, and is reported to have met with ambitious members of the shadow cabinet to urge them to put campaign teams in place.The newspaper said he told friends: “I will not let this party become a basket case again. I will not let our hard-won gains be squandered, so we will need to be ready in the unlikely event the worst comes to the worst.”A Labour leadership source disputed the claims, telling The Independent: “We’re confident Keir and Angela broke no rules, and that it will be proven.“The only planning we’re doing is for Keir and Angela to lead the party into government at the next general election.”Asked about the reports, and whether Sir Keir had held any conversations with her on the matter, Ms Nandy told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: “It’s absolute nonsense.“No, he hasn’t, and I’ve spoken to him twice in the last couple of days about how we persuade this government to lift a finger to avert a crisis on the railways, and about how we can [reverse] the huge cuts to local government funding.”She added: “No, I’m not worried he’s been talking to anybody about succession planning, because I know he’s been talking to all of us about how we rid this country of a government has held us back over the last 12 years.”Pressed again on BBC’s Sunday Politics about whether she had been involved in any succession planning with the Labour leader, Ms Nandy repeated it was “absolute nonsense” and said she had had “no conversation with Keir Starmer about succession”.The remarks came as former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown suggested Sir Keir should “ignore” anonymous briefings in the media this week from shadow cabinet ministers that he is “boring voters to death”.Mr Brown said the Labour leader would make a “great prime minister”, adding: “What’s exciting about the possibility of Keir Starmer’s leadership is he will have a plan for Britain.“He will show how we can get back growth. He will show how we can get living standards rising again, and he will show how we can have a fairer society that deals with problems like climate change.” More

Grant Shapps has dismissed growing calls for the government to get involved in talks over rail strikes as a “stunt”, amid growing tensions over the biggest industrial action on the network in decades.Condemning the industrial action set to take place this week, the transport secretary warned the country’s biggest rail union it would be a “huge act of self-harm”, and claimed they had been “gunning” for action.He also suggested freight services could be reduced to 50 per cent of normal levels due to the disruption expected by the strikes at Network Rail and 13 other train operators on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.The transport secretary’s remarks came after the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) confirmed over the weekend the strikes would go ahead after the failure to resolve a bitter dispute over workers’ conditions.Despite the government facing calls to intervene to prevent the strikes — including from a senior Tory MP — Mr Shapps said: “The trade unions know that only the trade union and the employer can settle this. I will not cut across that.”Speaking on Sky News’s Sophy Ridge programme, he claimed: “This is a stunt at the 11th hour by the union, suddenly coming forward and saying ‘we need to negotiate with the government now’ even though this last month they told me they wouldn’t be seen dead negotiating with the government”.“I think it is a huge act of self-harm to go on strike at the moment,” the cabinet minister added. “I don’t believe the workers are anywhere as militant as their unions who are leading them up the garden path. They are gunning for this strike. It is completely unnecessary.”But the Tory MP Jake Berry, the chair of the influential Northern Research Group (NRG) of backbench Conservatives, urged the government and all parties to “get around the table” and prevent the “huge negative impact” of strike action.He told Times Radio: “What’s the alternative? The only way this will be sorted out is by people sitting down with, I don’t know, cold beer and sandwiches. I don’t know if they still do that anymore. But sitting down and sorting this out.”Labour’s Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, also said ministers needed to step in to prevent the network “grinding to a halt” in a dispute over pay, conditions and job losses.She said: “During the pandemic they [the government] took the right to negotiate back from train operating companies, so they’re the only people who can resolve this and yet they’re not prepared to.“The biggest problem that this country has is not militant workers, it’s a militant government”.Lisa Nandy says the government has led the country to ‘chaos’Mick Lynch, the general secretary of RMT, stressed the the union had no choice but to act after the train operators had still not made a pay offer when talks adjourned on Thursday.“What else are we to do? Are we to plead? Are we to beg? We want to bargain for our futures. We want to negotiate,” he told Sky News.In an escalation of tensions, Mr Lynch also accused the transport secretary of an “entire fabrication” over claims about the union’s attendance at negotiations over rail strikes.Minutes earlier, Mr Shapps said his “big complaint” was that on Saturday Mr Lynch and the RMT “walked out” of talks and instead attended a cost-of-living crisis organised by the Trade Union Congress (TUC).RMT union boss accuses Grant Shapps of ‘fabricating’ details over talksBut Mr Lynch hit back: “We’re available to negotiate, this nonsense that we didn’t attend negotiations yesterday, which Grant Shapps has said, is an entire fabrication.“We left Network Rail on Friday night at around half past seven and they said to us, ‘we are prepared to meet you on Sunday’.“They never mentioned any negotiations on Saturday because they were going to speak to the Department for Transport about what they might be able to discuss with us.“He’s making it up, what he’s saying is untrue, we didn’t attend a rally instead of negotiations. There were no negotiations scheduled and the train operating companies have not spoken to me or any of my officials since Thursday at lunchtime.” More