Is Starmer foolish to attack the Tories’ strike laws?

Labour feels strongly on the NHS – you can tell that by the number of times Keir Starmer brings up the NHS during Prime Minister’s questions, which he did again today. Historically, the NHS has always been a weak point for the Conservatives. In spite of granting the health service ever more resources, come election time Labour automatically trots out the charge that the Tories are out to privatise or otherwise dismantle the NHS.

But has Starmer made a miscalculation in attacking the government’s proposed strike laws, which would oblige the unions to ensure that minimum service levels are maintained in the ambulance service, as well as several other public services, on strike days? Such a law would end the situation present in today’s ambulance strike, where crews in many parts of the country are refusing to attend even category 2 emergencies – which include, for example, heart attacks and strokes.

The Conservative 2019 manifesto promised a law ensuring minimum service levels only in transport strikes. So did a bill drafted by the Truss government and published on the day she resigned. Rishi Sunak’s decision to extend it to other public services, including schools and the NHS, ups the ante considerably. 

It is possible to see voters siding with Labour over charges that the government is being excessively tight-fisted in not settling with nurses and ambulance staff. But defending unions in withdrawing emergency ambulance cover is quite another matter. Today’s action puts Unison and the GMB – who have called ambulance workers out on strike – in the same place as Just Stop Oil, which during last autumn’s protests refused even to allow ambulances through its road blocks. That did not work out well for Just Stop Oil, which saw public support for its actions quickly ebb away.

Unions are now reported to be discussing the possibility of co-ordinated strikes specifically against the proposed new strike laws. As much as the unions will attempt to attack the government for trying to take away the right to strike, Rishi Sunak is quite clearly not trying to do this. Unions will still have the right to strike; only they will have to ensure a minimum level of service when they do. As Sunak made clear during PMQs today, the proposed law will still leave Britain with a much more liberal attitude towards strikes than in many other countries, where ambulance workers would not be allowed to call even a limited strike.

The danger for Starmer is that the Conservatives manage to portray him as the friend of militant unions who cannot bring himself to criticise strikes – even ones which threaten lives – because he is not brave enough to take on his union paymasters. To judge by today’s PMQs, it is a trap into which Starmer could too easily fall.