Labour-controlled Merseyrail agrees a 7.1 PER CENT pay deal with train staff

Keir Starmer faces mounting chaos on strikes today as Labour-controlled Merseyrail was slated for handing train staff a 7.1 per cent pay deal.

The TSSA union announced it has accepted the ‘reasonable’ offer from the operator – overseen by Liverpool metro mayor Steve Rotheram. 

But the government immediately distanced itself from the package, stressing that Transport Secretary Grant Shapps had no say. In contrast, the RMT is launching strikes across the country after rejecting offers worth around 4 per cent. 

A senior source told MailOnline it was evidence of Labour’s inability to resist eye-watering demands from unions. ‘They would just roll over wherever they are,’ the source said. 

The row erupted with Sir Keir still facing a mounting revolt after dozens joined picket lines to show support for industrial action crippling the country.

They included at least four front benchers, even though Sir Keir ordered them to shun the protests. Extraordinarily, shadow rail minister Tan Dhesi claimed last night that he had not even seen the edict from the leader’s office.   

Deputy leader Angela Rayner inflamed simmering tensions by openly backing the strikes, saying the RMT union had ‘no choice’ as it demands a pay rise of more than 7 per cent. 

But Sir Keir himself was accused of into ‘hiding’ after refusing to make any comment on the biggest industrial dispute for 30 years.

He will have to surface later with the weekly PMQs session due at noon – and Boris Johnson certain to revel in his discomfort. 

Keir Starmer (pictured in Wakefield at the weekend) faces a mounting revolt after dozens joined picket lines to show support for industrial action crippling the country

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Red line: Labour MPs at London’s Victoria station yesterday, from left: 1. Beth Winter (Cynon Valley), 2. Kim Johnson (Liverpool Riverside), 3. Rachael Maskell (York Central), 4. Ian Mearns (Gateshead), 5. Richard Burgon (Leeds East), 6. Zarah Sultana (Coventry South), 7. Ian Byrne (Liverpool West Derby), 8. Rebecca Long-Bailey (Salford and Eccles), 9. Dan Carden (Liverpool Walton), 10. Paula Barker (Liverpool Wavertree)

Merseyrail employs around 1,200 people, with the TSSA representing a range of staff from guards to driver managers.

Those staff have not been striking, but services have still been crippled by the RMT action affecting Network Rail and other operators.

TSSA chief Manuel Cortes said: ‘What this clearly shows is our union, and sister unions, are in no way a block on finding the solutions needed to avoid a summer of discontent on the railways.’

Mr Rotheram declared yesterday that he was ‘standing in solidarity’ with the RMT as their strike action crippled the country. 

The agreement emerged as official figures showed the headline CPI rate of inflation hit another 40-year high of 9.1 per cent in May. 

However, ministers and the Bank of England have been begging for wage restraint to avoid creating an even worse price spiral.  

The PM has branded the strike ‘wrong and unnecessary’ and called for a return to negotiations. 

Tory defence committee chair Tobias Ellwood turned up the heat by suggesting the unions were acting as ‘Putin’s friend’. 

‘I think Russia must be enjoying this self-inflicted distraction, pleased to see that the one government in Europe that is actually standing up to Putin is completely distracted in this way,’ he told Sky News.

He added: ‘I say to the unions, please don’t be Putin’s friend. Return to the talks today so we can get the country moving again.’

The fallout from the strike was continuing today, with the RMT spreading three days of action across the week to cause maximum pain.

Less than than 20 per cent of services ran yesterday. Nine out of ten services in Scotland were axed as all trains north of Falkirk were cancelled.

Travellers were left stranded or forced to take to congested roads as only five services operated in the Central Belt.

Sir Keir’s aides said he would be making no public comment. A spokesman added: ‘Unlike the Government, our focus is firmly on the public. The Tories are in charge… the responsibility for this week’s chaos lies firmly with them.’

Ms Rayner took advantage of the leadership vacuum to make clear she backed the strikes. ‘Workers have been left with no choice,’ she said.

‘No one takes strike action lightly. I will always defend their absolute right to do so for fairness at work.’

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was photographed backing striking workers north of the border.  

Mr Sarwar wrote on Twitter: ‘This is a crisis entirely of the Government’s making. The workers don’t want strikes. The unions don’t want strikes. The public don’t want strikes. They demand better.’ 

Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford said he was not issuing similar orders against joining picket lines to his AMs.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar met with striking RMT workers outside Edinburgh Waverley station yesterday

Shadow environment minister Alex Sobel was spotted on the RMT picket line yesterday despite Sir Keir’s edict

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Sir Keir’s office warned Labour frontbenchers on Monday that they would be disciplined if they joined picket lines outside stations.

But at least four members of his top team ignored the warning, including shadow minister Alex Sobel, Labour whip Navendu Mishra and parliamentary aides Kate Osborne and Paula Barker.

Ms Dhesi told Talk TV last night that he did not receive the edict. 

‘I did not receive any email. In fact I got my team to check, to comb through the emails,’ he said.

‘There wasn’t any official memo coming out to the likes of myself. That’s why you would have seen different people doing different things.’

Mr Dhesi said he personally had not gone to a picket line because ‘I was too busy trying to do my job’.

Liverpool MP Kim Johnson told the BBC that Sir Keir had ‘got it wrong’ on the strikes

‘We’re a party that was born out of the trade union movement,’ she said.

‘I think Keir Starmer has got it wrong.’

Simon Fletcher, a former top aide to Sir Keir, told LBC radio that the Labour leader would face a major backlash if he tried to lay down the law, including the possible loss of huge sums of union funding.

Sir Keir already appears to be in retreat, with Labour sources saying that chief whip Alan Campbell will not decide until the weekend whether to impose disciplinary action.

Mr Lynch urged RMT members to inflict more misery tomorrow, saying: ‘Now is the time to stand up and fight for every single railway worker in this dispute that we will win.’