Keir Starmer has angrily branded Rishi Sunak “rank pathetic” for blaming Labour for the widespread strikes that have hit the country.
Up to half a million workers walked out on Wednesday in increasingly bitter disputes over pay, jobs and conditions.
In heated exchanges during PMQs, the prime minister accused Starmer of siding with “extremist protesters and union bosses” while the Conservatives “stand up for hardworking Britons and school children”.
The Labour leader hit back: “After 13 years in power trying to blame the Labour Party for his failure to sort out the strikes is rank pathetic.
“The Tory party’s addiction to sleaze and scandal has done huge damage to this country.”
Labour has opposed the government’s controversial new anti-strike legislation which could see nurses sacked if they go on strike and new laws designed to make it harder to protest.
Members of seven trade unions are taking industrial action today in the biggest strike in a decade, affecting schools, universities, trains and buses. Civil servants, train and bus drivers and university staff also stopped work.
Picket lines were mounted outside railway stations, schools, government departments and universities across the country, with unions saying they are receiving strong support from the public.
More than 100,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union are on strike, including Border Agency staff at ports and airports.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said he hopes the protests and strikes will send a strong message to the Government about the anger felt by growing numbers of workers.