A TOP Labour MP has said the party is “on the side” of railway workers set to paralyse the country with crippling summer strikes.
Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Lisa Nandy said she understood why militant union members were walking out.
Greedy RMT bosses are orchestrating five days of chaos in June that will grind the nation’s trains to a halt.
Ministers have strongly condemned the action set to wreak misery on workers, festival goers and kids sitting exams.
But Ms Nandy today sparked fury for suggesting the supported the walkouts.
She told GMB: “We want to avoid the strikes and we’re on the public’s side on this.
“We’re also on the rail workers’ side and I was speaking to some rail workers on Monday just before I got on the train to come down to London.
“They’re dealing with the same pressures that everyone else is – the cost of food, the cost of soaring inflation rates, taxes going up, and they’re really struggling to make ends meet.”
Allies close to Ms Nandy insist she was not coming out in favour of the strikes and instead wants ministers to broker a solution.
But Labour has been tying itself in knots over its position by refusing to explicitly condemn the walkouts to avoid upsetting the unions.
In contrast the Government has slammed the national rail strikes set to cripple Britain at the end of June in the biggest walkout for 33 years.
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi today clobbered the union bosses for causing chaos during exam season.
He told the Sun: “Kids have been exceptionally resilient these last few years and are bouncing back with the help of our tutoring programme and amazing schools.
“It would be such a crying shame if the trade unions were to prevent young people getting back on track just to suit their political ends.”
