Member

I imagine that the Secretary of State herself can see how that would look. She must know that it would not pass the sniff test. This looks like the return of the 1970s—a return to deals done over beer and sandwiches in No. 10. Surely nobody in this country beside the unions wants to see that happen. We have actually just had a taste of it with the Government’s recent ASLEF deal, in which Ministers skilfully negotiated a bumper pay rise for train drivers for nothing in return—nothing for passengers and taxpayers. This no-strings pay deal meant removing all reforms to working practices—in other words, all the things that might help modernise the network and drive down fares—shortly followed by ASLEF announcing another strike anyway. Who knows what deal was done to get that called off; perhaps the Secretary of State will be making a statement on that.