Keir Starmer risks fresh clash by ordering Labour frontbenchers not to join picket lines

Several shadow ministers defied the Labour leader last month – when he backed down on threat to discipline them

Keir Starmer has set up a fresh clash with his own senior MPs by again ordering them to stay away from picket lines mounted by striking workers.

Several shadow ministers defied the Labour leader by joining protests during last month’s rail dispute – after which he backed down on a threat to discipline them.

But Sir Keir has waded back into the controversy, ahead of fresh rail strikes and the Royal Mail dispute, saying: “The Labour party in opposition needs to be the Labour party in power.

“And a government doesn’t go on picket lines, a government tries to resolve disputes,” he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

Even some of Sir Keir’s closest supporters called his first picket line ban a mistake, when he was accused of “hiding” from the strikes mounted by the RMT union over pay and redundancies.

Speaking after Monday’s stormy TV Tory leadership race debate, the Labour leader condemned Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak “talking about clothing and earrings instead of the health service”.

“If ever there was an example of a party that is absolutely lost the plot, lost any sense of purpose, then it was that debate last night,” he alleged.

But Sir Keir declined to say whether a Labour government would give public sector workers inflation-matching pay rises, arguing its job would be to “create the framework for success” in negotiations.

The Labour leader said: “I support the right to strike but I think the role of government is to facilitate, make sure those negotiations take place to an agreed settlement.”

He also pledged: “An incoming Labour government would put in place stronger employment rights for people from day one in the job.”

Sir Keir also confirmed he is backing down after appearing to axe plans to renationalise the rail companies, after a backlash from his own transport spokeswoman.

Labour is abandoning its 2019 proposal to nationalise water, energy and post services, but he called rail “a bit of an outlier”.

“Large parts of rail are already in public ownership and we would continue that, so the rail situation is different because of the way their contracts are run,” the Labour leader said.

He added: “Apart from rail, the answer is going to lie in regulating the market, changing the market, rather than simply taking things into public ownership.”

Sir Keir again failed to lift the lid on where he would find the money to fund public service improvements, after Labour opposed the National Insurance rise to rescue the NHS and social care.

He repeated that he is “looking at stocks and shares, looking at those who have property portfolios” to create “a fairer tax system or a more efficient tax system”, but gave no details.