A flagship government law which was meant to make it harder for unions to go on strike has been branded a flop after train drivers staged a major walkout.
Members of the Aslef union will stage industrial action over the next week in a dispute over pay.
The strike will bring chaos to the rail network, despite parliament last year passing the Minimum Service Level Act.
The law gives train companies and other employers the power to force 40% of their workforce to remain on duty to reduce the disruption caused to passengers.
Speaking last year, Rishi Sunak said: “We cannot go on relying on short term fixes - including calling on our armed forces or civil servants - to mitigate the disruption caused by strike action.
“That’s why we’re taking the right long-term decision to bring in minimum service levels, in line with other countries, to keep people safe and continue delivering the vital public services that hard-working people rely on.”
But the train companies involved in this week’s rail dispute have chosen not to use the law amid concerns that it may actually prolong industrial disputes by worsening relations between bosses and workers.
Labour’s shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said: “The Tories have openly admitted their minimum service laws could make chronic staff shortage even worse, increase disruption and worsen industrial relations.
“It’s no wonder that employers that don’t want to see more strikes are refusing to use them.
“Instead of attacking working people, Tory ministers should.get round the table, find a deal and avoid any further disruption.”
Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokesperson Christine Jardine said: “The government is entirely to blame for this endless cycle of strikes.
“Every day our country sees another strike makes a mockery of Rishi Sunak’s Minimum Service Level Bill.
“Conservative ministers need to urgently get a strike solution instead of pursuing a tedious and divisive Bill.”
On ITV’s Good Morning Britain this morning, housing minister Lee Rowley was left squirming over the latest government failure.
Presenter Susanna Reid told him: “The legislation you introduced for minimum services doesn’t work. The union’s doing its job, what’s the government doing?”
The minister replied: “The unions is certainly not doing its job by inconveniencing commuters in the way that they are.
“Unions have a choice about whether to act responsibly or not responsibly. I don’t think Aslef are acting responsibly today, they are inconveniencing commuters.”
Former Tory minister Caroline Nokes said the legislation clearly was not working.
She told the BBC’s Politics Live: “The stark reality is that the legislation clearly isn’t working, it isn’t delivering what Grant Shapps promised in enabling people to get to work.
“I don’t know whether that means going back to the drawing board, whether it means amendments, but it does seem to be farcical that we were expecting this to work. It hasn’t.”
Asked yesterday whether the prime minister was disappointed that train bosses were not using the new law, his spokesman said: “Yes, it’s something that we and the public expect them to use.
“We’ve been repeatedly been clear that this legislation is available for train operators to use.
“It’s something the rail operators called for many months ago and the public would rightly expect them to be used if strike action is taking place.”