Furious Tories urge Theresa May to draw up plans to make it harder for essential services to strike

THERESA MAY was last night under growing pressure from Tories to take on militant union bosses plotting Xmas carnage.

As commuters braced themselves for yet more chaos on Southern Railways, MPs called on the PM to draw up new powers to protect “essential services” such as the railways.

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Chris Philp MP said the Government had to make it harder for unions to pull out staff in areas such as rail, the NHS and airports.

A Cabinet Minister separately told the Sun: “We have to fight them.”

Separately Lord Heseltine said: “You cannot have small groups of people holding society to ransom, regardless of personal inconvenience or cost.”

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No.10 last night insisted its priority was encouraging unions to get back to the negotiating table with Southern Railways.

But it came as the RMT’s president Sean Hoyle was reported as saying the union’s No.1 aim was to overthrow the “capitalist system”.

He told left wing activists last month he wanted the Tories to “drown in spit”.

The blast fuelled a belief at the highest level of Government that the strikes are politically motivated and coordinated.

RMT conductors are set to stage a two-day strike on Southern from today.

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Workers at the biggest Post Offices in the country will go on strike for up to 6 days from today.

And 1,500 check in staff at regional airports across the UK are set to go on strike from Friday.

Separately British Airways cabin crew are set to go on strike for two days – Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

ACAS is holding talks to avert the strike on Tuesday with BA insisting it has contingency plans in place to ensure barely any services are affected.

A Labour MP broke ranks yesterday to shame Jeremy Corbyn by criticising union leaders. Widely respected Meg Hillier said union bosses had to be careful as they “could be shooting themselves in the foot” by affecting the plans of so many hard-working Brits.

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The MP - chair of the cross-party Public Accounts Committee - said: “It is absolutely right that people should have the right to strike but I think it is a very unfortunate combination for people travelling.

“And I think that all trade unions need to really think about the impact on the people they are actually there to serve, their customers or their passengers.

“There needs to be a bit of a wake-up call.”

It marked the first time a Labour MP has been brave enough to criticise unions since the latest spate of industrial action targeting Southern Railways, the Post Office and British Airways was announced.

Mr Corbyn has repeatedly refused to criticise the union movement.

Yesterday Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott insisted the industrial disputes were “genuine” and the unions were “entitled to take their strategy forward”.

A No.10 spokesman said: “In this Parliament we have already passed legislation to provide people with better protection from undemocratic industrial action.

“We will keep under review how these measures are working in practice.”