ON-TRAIN staff on a key mainline railway will be balloted for strike action after a colleague was sacked “for telling the truth.”

East Coast crew leader Mark Doughty was dismissed after he told angry passengers the full English breakfast was off because of staff shortages and a broken boiler, which the company said brought it into disrepute.

Rail union RMT said reps had repeatedly warned East Coast about problems on the route.

“Instead of heeding and acting on those warnings the company has opted to scapegoat a member of staff who was only carrying out his responsibility to be honest and up-front with passengers,” the union’s general secretary Mick Cash said.

“This is not a situation that can go unchallenged.”