Rail Strikes

Debate between David Linden and Julie Marson

Wednesday 15th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Julie Marson (Hertford and Stortford) (Con)]

I had intended to go through each element of the motion, but I do not have time, so I will focus on the second element, which is that we condemn

“the decision of the rail unions to hold three days of strikes”.

Precisely as my hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Ruth Edwards) said, I know whose side I am on.

[David Linden]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Julie Marson]

Absolutely not.

I am on the side of my hard-working constituents—employed and self-employed—going about their ordinary business on a day-to-day basis who want to go to work next week, who want to see friends and family next week, who want to go shopping next week, and who may want to go to urgent and important GP and hospital appointments next week. I am on their side, and when I speak to the residents of my commuting towns of Bishop’s Stortford, Sawbridgeworth, Hertford, Ware and St Margarets, which serves Stanstead Abbotts, I say, “I am on your side.” I do not want to see these strikes because I think they are profoundly unfair.

I do not believe that the unions are working in the best interests of the heroes who have been supporting our rail network and our rail industry over the last two years. I have written to my rail networks to thank them and their staff for everything they did during the pandemic. I would categorise this even more strongly: I support those workers, as well as all the other workers in my constituency, because they are hard-working people. They are not being served well by the union, and I would use that old adage of saying they are lions. They are lions, but they are led by donkeys.