TORIES seeking to ban transport workers from going on strike today could be laying the ground for oppressive new assaults on the labour movement, unions warned the Star yesterday.

Tory MP Chris Philp will introduce 10-minute rule Bill today which would require judges to authorise transport strikes and require workers to provide a skeleton service during walkouts.

The Bill is unlikely to become law but sources in two different rail unions fear the move could be part of an attempt by “right-wing outriders” to lay the ground for new anti-strike laws in the coming years.

This would further restrict the right to strike following the imposition of ballot thresholds in the Trade Union Act last year.

And Labour shadow Cabinet Office minister Ian Lavery told the Star that Mr Philp’s Industrial Action (Protection of Critical National Services) Bill was part of a “pincer movement” of Tories attacking workers’ rights.

“If anybody believes the Tories are going away because of the Trade Union Act, they should think again,” Mr Lavery said.

“We are in the constant grip of attacks against ordinary, decent, hard-working people. The Tories say they are the party of workers, but they are the enemies of working people.”

Mr Philp has faced the wrath of his Croydon South constituents over the Tory government’s handing of the Southern rail dispute.

Southern’s owner Govia Thameslink Railway, which is in turn owned by transport giants Go-Ahead and the French state, is locked in a bitter dispute with its workers over extending driver-only trains.

One source told the Star that “ideologues in the Department for Transport or the Conservative Party” might have concluded that if they are forced to compromise over Southern, that “thresholds haven’t worked and we’re going to have to ban strikes on railways and buses.”

Drivers’ union Aslef has suspended its strikes pending ongoing talks at the TUC, but one source close to the dispute said the talks were “going round in circles” yesterday.

Drivers in fellow rail union RMT will go ahead with their strike today, following a “rock solid” turnout from striking conductors yesterday.

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