Grant Shapps unveils anti-strike law today and says trains don't need ticket collectors

Business Secretary Grant Shapps will release his Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill today to combat what he has called the 'eternal strikes' - as he launched a new war of words on railway workers

The Business Secretary renewed his war of words with railway workers by publishing an anti-strikes law in Parliament later in the day (

Image: PA)

Trains don't need ticket collectors because they're stuck in the "1950s" and "the Ark", proclaimed Tory Grant Shapps.

The Business Secretary renewed his war of words with railway workers by publishing anti-strike legislation in Parliament later today.

Mr. Shapps said his Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill will combat what he calls "eternal strikes" and protect "life and limb" during walkouts.

Yet there are already agreements to cover paramedics and firefighters – two of the three sectors immediately targeted by his bill. The third is the railways.

Today's bill - which requires some employees to work during a strike - could also affect health, education, transport, border security and nuclear decommissioning workers.

Minimum service levels will not be imposed on them immediately, but they will be held in reserve as a threat.

Passengers at Waterloo station during a rail strike (

Picture:

PENNSYLVANIA)

Rishi Sunak refused to deny that NHS and other workers could be fired under the law - as they would lose the normal legal protection they would enjoy during a strike.

Yet Mr Shapps brushed off concerns, saying: 'This kind of talk that someone will be fired is no more true than it would be under any contract of employment. .

"And that's always the case when people have to obey the law."

Mr. Shapps claimed the law could be passed by Parliament in less than six months.

Yet Professor Keith Ewing, president of the Institute of Employment Rights, called the law "highly questionable" and said "the government is likely to run into legal problems".

Mr. Shapps said the law will demonstrate that "life and bodily integrity must come first" when strike action takes place.

He told GB News: "In these latest strikes, the Royal College of Nur...