Theresa May tells Jeremy Corbyn to ‘get on the phone’ to the Labour-funding union leaders to sort out the strikes chaos
THERESA May challenged Jeremy Corbyn to "get on the phone"; to the Labour-funding leftie union trade union bosses and sort out the chaotic train strikes.
As hundreds of thousands are stuck after a second day of madness due to strikes on Southern Rail, the PM called on the Labour leader to get his pals to call it off.
Sussex MP Tim Loughton slammed the unions taking industrial action today and said it was preventing his constituents from reaching vital health care trials.
"Can the PM give her assurance that everything will be done at the ACAS talks today to end this nonsense of a strike and give our constituents their lives back?" he asked.
And Mrs May took the chance to attack the Labour leader for his close links to stubborn union leaders.
"This is an appalling strike," she began. "We've seen these trains for decades... I hope that the talks can lead to an end to this strike."
"I think the Leader of the Opposition could do something to help... the Labour party is funded by Aslef...
"Why doesn't he get on the phone and tell them to call the strike off immediately?"
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The ultra-leftie even introduced him at the union’s Christmas party last week, as activists sang an anthem of protest made famous by socialist revolutionaries in 1980s Nicaragua.
The President of the train drivers’ union has led his members to repeatedly walk out from their posts, culminating in this week’s three-day strike at Southern Rail this week.
The industrial action has been co-led by Aslef’s General Secretary Mick Whelan, who after meeting the new Transport Secretary Chris Grayling for the first time in the summer promised to deliver “10 years of passenger misery”.
Thousands of stressed-out commuters are enduring rush-hour misery again as the second day of the Southern Rail strike takes hold today.
The train operator’s services have been brought to a standstill as MPs consider a complete ban on rail strikes altogether.
Roughly 300,000 passengers, the population of Iceland, have been affected by the strikes again this morning.
And Labour MP Peter Dowd took the first question today to tease the Prime Minister about Boris Johnson's recent comments about Saudi Arabia, which embarrassed the Government.
He said: "In light of the Foreign Secretary's display of foot and mouth disease... when deciding on cabinet position does the Prime Minister think that pencilling in 'FO' should have been an instruction, not a job offer?"
Despite laughter around the chamber, the PM hit back: "The Foreign Secretary is doing an absolutely excellent job. He is, in short, an FFS, a fine, foreign secretary."
And both Jeremy Corbyn and Mrs May teamed up to encourage MPs and the public to download the charity single recorded in memory of the murdered MP Jo Cox.
"Jo Cox was a fine member of this house and would have continued to contribute... to this house had she not been brutally murdered," Mrs May said.
"Let's just encourage everybody to download this single."