Reeves is adamant that scrapping strike laws will not lead to more walkouts 

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves is adamant that scrapping strike laws will not lead to more walkouts

  • Labour denied its plans to rip up strike laws would lead to more industrial action
  • Party pledged to repeal Trade Union Act which set higher strike ballot thresholds
  • Rachel Reeves insisted the plan would not open the door to more walkouts 

Labour was yesterday forced to deny its plans to rip up strike laws would lead to more industrial action.

The party has pledged to repeal the 2016 Trade Union Act which set higher thresholds for ballots on strikes, which would make it easier for unions to hold the country to ransom.

But Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves insisted the plan would not open the door to more walkouts.

Labour has pledged to repeal the 2016 Trade Union Act which set higher thresholds for ballots on strikes, which would make it easier for unions to hold the country to ransom. But Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves (pictured yesterday) insisted the plan would not open the door to more walkouts

‘I do not accept that our policy would lead to more strikes – on the contrary,’ she said. ‘Even with this legislation that the Tories have put on the statute books, we’ve had more strikes than at any time in the last 25 years.

‘The only people we’ve got to blame for the chaos that we’ve got on our rails and in our NHS are the Tories.’

Miss Reeves, who was speaking at a Labour conference for business chiefs in Canary Wharf, east London, also refused to commit to giving nurses a penny more than the Government’s pay offer.

‘I’m not going to pluck numbers out of the air and I’ve said that everything in the Labour manifesto will be fully costed and fully funded,’ she said. 

At the same event, Sir Keir Starmer twice refused to commit to repealing new legislation from the Government on minimum service levels for emergency workers – but vowed to fight it ‘every step of the way’.