NOW LET LONDON GET BACK TO WORK

UNION CHIEFS ACCUSED OF HOLDING CAPITAL TO RANSOM BUT MAYOR BLAMES THE MINISTERS

- Nicholas Cecil, Ross Lydall and John Dunne

RAIL unions were urged today to let London “get back to work” by calling off a wave of strikes crippling the transport network.

Hundreds of thousands of people across the country were having to work from home after the Christmas break as so few trains were running. Former Cabinet minister Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet, told the Standard: “These strikes are unjustified and deeply irresponsible. The unions should call off their industrial action right now so that our capital city can get back to work.”

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union at Network Rail and 14 train operators were staging two 48-hour walkouts from today and Friday, while drivers in the Aslef union will strike on Thursday.

At Euston station this morning, William Tulley, 58, said: “I’m not antistrike but the country cannot continue like this. It’s certainly a bleak start to the new year.” Student Aisha Bhati, 26, added: “I need to get to college. I’m training to work in the NHS so that I can do something worthwhile and these (rail) strikes are making life more difficult.” But Mayor of London Sadiq Khan turned the spotlight firmly onto the Government, with Britain also being hit by walkouts by nurses, postal workers, civil servants and other public sector workers.