TRAIN DRIVERS could stage unofficial walkouts if Tory ministers push through anti-strike measures, Aslef leader Mick Whelan warned yesterday.

In a forthcoming exclusive interview with the Morning Star, Mr Whelan said the planned Trade Union Bill could “take away our voice altogether.”

He also branded Chancellor George Osborne’s much-vaunted Northern Powerhouse “a total tissue of lies.”

The Aslef general secretary said attacks on his union’s current dispute with London Underground over new night rosters were “about the demonising of civil society.”

Tube workers have so far taken two 24-hour stints of strike action over the implementation of London Mayor Boris Johnson’s plan for all-night services on Fridays and Saturdays.

Unions RMT, TSSA and Unite have announced two further dates towards the end of August. Their negotiations are still ongoing, with reps saying they still hope for a settlement.

Mr Whelan’s union, which represents train operators on the Underground and 96 per cent of drivers across Britain’s railways, has suspended action for the time being.

It cited assurances that management had withdrawn new rosters as its reason for doing so.

But Mr Whelan said the union would reinstate strike action if necessary, and that workers would always find a means to address grievances.

“If you take away the right to strike, it won’t stop people wildcatting.

“There’s a long history in the railway, and particularly the Tube, in [the wave of transport strikes in] 1989, of people [taking unofficial action].

“And if we have to comply with Maggie’s laws, we’ll have to comply with them. But, of course, if we have to repudiate, we’ll defend people doing it and their moral right to do it. We’ll just say it’s nothing to do with us.

“But who will you come to to resolve it? Who will you talk to? Who will you get around the table?”

Mr Whelan savaged Mr Osborne’s blueprint for the north, pointing to the withdrawal of funding for infrastructure projects including the electrification of the Transpennine railway.

“It was an openly contemptuous attempt to garner votes in the north-west and the north-east,” he fumed.