Keir Starmer is accused of rushing through key policies to please the unions' “paymasters” | Politics | News

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is facing accusations that he wants to push through his renationalisation of rail policy in order to please the unions.

Ministers have bypassed the usual procedure for passing new laws in the House of Commons.

Instead of scrutiny by a Committee on Public Bills, the Government has opted for a committee of the whole House.

This allows the government to pass new laws weeks or even months faster than usual.

Normally, governments can only take accelerated action in emergency scenarios.

Conservative transport spokeswoman Helen Whateley told the Daily Mail: “Keir Starmer is undoubtedly keen to divert the spotlight from Labour's cronyism and cruelty towards pensioners.

“In order to do his financiers a favor, he is pushing for the nationalization of the railways.

“Just weeks after promising to put country before party, Keir appears to have a new slogan: unions first.”

Previously, the new Labour government had agreed on a collective agreement with the train drivers' union Aslef.

The agreement ensures that drivers receive a salary increase of 5 percent for 2022-23, 4.75 percent for 2023-24 and 4.5 percent for 2024-25 – each retroactively and with pension.

Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, said: “The offer is a good offer – a fair offer – and it is what we have always asked for, a clean offer, with no land grabbing on our terms as the companies and the previous government tried to do in April last year.”

Talks between Aslef and the previous Conservative government had stalled after an offer for April 2023 was rejected.

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said: “When I took on this job, I said I wanted to act quickly and put things right – starting with ending the rail strikes.

“The Conservatives were happy to see the taxpayer pay the price for the prolonged strikes and the suffering of passengers. This Labour Government is doing the right thing and putting passengers first.

“If accepted, this offer would finally end this long-running dispute and allow us to move forward by improving service for passengers with the biggest overhaul of our railways in a generation.”