Inside Politics: Strike underway

Commuters are being urged to avoid the rail network today as the biggest strike in 30 years gets underway. Elsewhere, there are fresh reports that Boris Johnson discussed giving government jobs to wife Carrie, after Downing Street confirmed that it intervened following the publication of a similar story in The Times Saturday.

Our chief politics commentator John Rentoul on what to look out for:

Boris Johnson takes back control of the government machine today, after his sinus operation yesterday. He will chair cabinet, and no doubt thank Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, for minding the shop. As justice secretary, meanwhile, Raab may publish the British Bill of Rights that will supplement the Human Rights Act. In the Commons, it is Foreign Office questions and two debates on subjects chosen by Labour. At 11.30am, Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, will be in conversation with the Institute for Government.

The biggest strike on Britain’s railways in 30 years is underway after the RMT union and rail bosses failed to agree on a deal yesterday in last-ditch discussions on pay, conditions and job cuts. Just a fifth of trains are due to run – there are no trains at all in some areas – and commuters are being urged to avoid the network altogether and to use alternative forms of travel, such as buses.

Back in Westminster, the political blame game continues as Labour accuses the government of doing nothing to intervene in the dispute. Ministers, meanwhile, are criticising the opposition for not condemning the industrial action and argue that is for the unions and the employers to find a way through the impasse. Unions also claim the row has been manufactured by Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, for political purposes – he says it has been “created by the unions”.

Louise Haigh, Labour’s shadow transport secretary, accused Shapps of a “dereliction of duty”, telling MPs that he had “not lifted a finger” to prevent the strikes. Haigh said Shapps had “tied the hands of those at the table” by failing to provide train operating companies with a mandate to negotiate on pay.

RMT bosses went as far as to accuse the government of actively preventing the resolution of a dispute that will see millions of passengers’ journeys disrupted. But Shapps’s Department for Transport dismissed the claim as “absolutely not true”, insisting that a £2bn shortfall in resources for the national network that the RMT attributed to government cuts was in fact the result of reduced passenger numbers following Covid.

Ahead of two more walkouts on Thursday and Saturday, Boris Johnson, chairing a meeting of cabinet this morning, will call for a “sensible compromise” in the row but warn that “too high demands” on pay will make it “incredibly difficult” to curb runaway inflation. “I want to be clear – we are not loading higher fares on passengers to carry on paying for working practices that date back in some cases to the 19th century,” the prime minister said in a statement on Monday evening.

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Members of Johnson’s team intervened following the publication of a story about his wife Carrie in The Times, Downing Street confirmed but denied that the prime minister himself contacted the paper to complain.

The story, which alleged that Johnson had attempted to install Carrie in a £100,000-a-year job in the Foreign Office at a time when he was conducting a secret affair with her, appeared in the first edition of the newspaper on Saturday, but vanished from later copies and a version also disappeared from the Mail Online website.

Johnson’s official spokesperson confirmed that No 10 was in contact with The Times before and after the publication of the first edition, but denied that the prime minister himself had contacted deputy editor Tony Gallagher, who was in charge of the paper that night. It is understood that no legal action has been taken by No 10 in relation to the story.

A diary entry suggests that the claim about Johnson wanted to appoint his then-lover to a government job (a spokesperson for Carrie denies the allegations) were heard by ministers as far back as 2018. The story appeared in a critical biography of Carrie by the Conservative donor and peer Lord Ashcroft and it was also mentioned in a diary kept by Alan Duncan, who was at the time a minister of state at the foreign office.

And there are two fresh lines this morning about the Johnsons and jobs. According to the Daily Mirror, Johnson talked to his aides about getting Carrie two more taxpayer funded roles. Sources told the paper the PM raised possible new environmental roles for Carrie in autumn 2020, either on the COP 26 summit or with the Royal Family. But the PM’s closest advisers were said to have vetoed both suggestions, warning either position could undermine his wife’s status as a private citizen, the Mirror said.

No 10 said the PM had never recommended Carrie for job but did not deny that the idea had been discussed.

“Too high demands on pay will also make it incredibly difficult to bring to an end the current challenges facing families around the world with rising costs of living. Now is the time to come to a sensible compromise for the good of the British people and the rail workforce.”

Johnson to call for compromise on strikes at cabinet meeting.

“Downing Street denies PM recommended his wife for a Govt role or one with Duke & Duchess of Cambridge’s Earthshot Prize – but not that he discussed the idea with No 10 aides.”

Pippa Crerar, Daily Mirror politics editor, on reports that PM considered offering wife Carrie government jobs.

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