Mick Lynch accuses government of ‘torpedoing’ rail strike talks before Christmas

Mick Lynch has accused the government of trying to “torpedo” pre-Christmas train strike talks.

“We were making progress with the train operating companies, and on one Sunday afternoon before strike action, they decided to torpedo those talks by putting conditions on the negotiations that they knew we could never accept,” the RMT boss told Sky News.

Mark Harper, the transport secretary, denied Mr Lynch’s claim on Tuesday, insisting it “absolutely isn’t true”.

However, Mr Lynch later hit back, saying: “He can deny it all he likes - it doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

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