Grant Shapps was heckled by opposition MPs as he made a Commons statement on plans to introduce new laws requiring minimum levels of service from striking ambulance staff, firefighters and railway workers.
The Business Secretary told MPs: “Members of the opposition who object to minimum safety levels, well, they’ll need to explain to their constituents why it is that if you have a heart attack, a stroke or life-threatening illness on a strike day there are no minimum safety standards in place.
“I see they don’t want to hear it but they’ll also need to explain why their leader, without hearing any of these details, has already promised to stand in the way of this legislation and to repeal minimum safety levels, which are in the interests of their own constituents … that are in place in every other mature European democracy … to protect lives and protect livelihoods in this country.”
Business Secretary Grant Shapps said the Government “absolutely believes in the right to strike” but that it is “duty bound” to protect the lives and livelihoods of people in the UK.
He thanked the Royal College of Nursing for working with health officials to ensure “safe levels of cover” during their strike, adding they showed they could protest in a “reasonable and mature way”.
Mr Shapps told the Commons: “A lack of timely co-operation from the ambulance unions meant employers could not reach agreement nationally for minimum safety levels during recent strikes and health officials were left guessing at the likely minimum coverage, making contingency planning almost impossible and putting everyone’s constituents’ lives at risk.
“The ambulance strike planned for tomorrow still does not have minimum safety levels in place and this will result in patchy emergency care for the British people, and this cannot continue.
“It’s for moments like this that we’re introducing legislation, focusing on blue light emergency services and delivering on our manifesto commitment to secure minimum service on the railways.”
Mr Shapps added: “We don’t want to use this legislation but we must ensure the safety of the British public.”
'Utterly stupid'
It is “utterly stupid” for the Business Secretary to go from thanking nurses to proposing to sack them for striking, Labour has claimed.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner opened her remarks on the statement from Grant Shapps by drawing attention to a constituent “who waited over an hour for an ambulance, who died waiting for an ambulance, and that was not on a strike day”.
She added: “That is because of the disastrous chaos we have in the system under this Conservative government.”
Ms Rayner went on: “How he goes on with one breath thanking nurses to sacking nurses, not just insulting, but utterly stupid.
“There is no common sense about this at all. He says he recognises pressure faced by key workers, but he knows the NHS cannot find the nurses they need to work on the ward, he knows the trains don’t run even on non-strike days such is their shortage of staff.
“So, how can he seriously think that sacking thousands of key workers won’t just plunge our public services further into crisis?”
Angela Rayner also contested the Government’s claims it was following the example of existing laws in France and Spain.
The Labour deputy leader said: “Those countries with those laws … lose vastly more strike days than Britain. Has he taken any time at all to speak to their governments or trade unions to learn any real lessons from them?”
She added: “The public is being put at risk every day due to the Government’s NHS crisis and staffing shortages. He is right that it is his Government’s duty to protect the public’s access to essential services, but livelihoods and lives are already being lost.
“We all want minimum standards of safety, service and staffing. It is the minister’s failing to provide it.”
Ms Rayner also claimed paramedics already “operate life and limb deals on a trust by trust basis” to ensure emergency calls are responded to.
She added: “He should know that services levels are at 82% with ambulance workers consistently leaving the picket lines to make sure that emergency calls were responded to.”
Grant Shapps has said it would have been “very possible” for ministers to ban ambulance workers or firefighters from striking, but noted “this isn’t what we are proposing today”.
His comments came after Conservative MP for Bassetlaw Brendan Clarke-Smith said in the Commons: “Does my right honourable friend agree with me that what we actually have today are fair and proportionate measures, which are actually equivalent to what is already in place in a number of other European countries such as France and Spain?”
The Business Secretary replied: “It’s worth the House reflecting that police were banned from striking in 1919 and that agreement has been in place for more than 100 years.
“It would have been very possible for ministers to come to this despatch box and say they would do the same with perhaps ambulance workers, or maybe with firefighters.
“That isn’t what we’re proposing today, we are proposing to bring ourselves in line with other modern European economies, it makes every bit of the sense to make sure that if strikes are going to occur, that our constituents’ lives are protected with minimum safety levels. Frankly, it’s extraordinary that anyone would argue against.”
'Criminalising the people who keep our borders safe is not the way to resolve an industrial dispute'
Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “The Government should be putting money in our members’ pockets, not trying to put our members behind bars.
“Criminalising the people who keep our borders safe is not the way to resolve an industrial dispute.
“It’s reprehensible, provocative and vindictive, and we’ll fight the legislation every step of the way.”
No more than half of ambulance staff in London will go on strike during industrial action on Wednesday in a bid to ensure “life and limb-threatening” 999 calls are answered.
Daniel Elkeles, London Ambulance Service chief executive officer, said the agreement had been reached with unions as call handlers prepare to join paramedics on the picket line.
He told reporters ahead of the strike: “What we have agreed with our union, Unison, is that a maximum of 50% of the staff will be taking industrial action at any one time, and if our call-answering time takes too long then staff will come from the picket line back into answering the phone, so that we can know that we can provide life and limb-threatening cover which is what we have agreed with our union is what we will do tomorrow.”
A Conservative MP has said “many who work in the public service” seemed to have forgotten “we spent £400 billion safeguarding their jobs”.
MP for South Dorset Richard Drax told the Commons: “Coming back through Heathrow recently, I was speaking to someone who works there and they were praising the Armed Forces during the coverage of the Border Force, and saying what an incredible job they did and how the whole process worked without any problems at all, and what a sad reflection it was on the public service in this particular area that they couldn’t do the same thing.
“Does my right honourable friend agree with me that the other side and the unions, and many who work in the public service, seemed to have forgotten that we spent £400 billion safeguarding their jobs, their futures and their careers?”
Business Secretary Grant Shapps replied: “I do want to pay tribute to the army, who did fantastic work.
“I think most people in the public service, who work in the public service, are doing a hugely valuable job. They’re trying to do the best. I think many of them are frustrated by their radical union leaders leading them often up a garden path.”
