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The transport secretary, Mark Harper, has refused to deny reports that the government pushed rail companies to include future use of driver-only trains as a condition of a pay deal, thus potentially scuppering an agreement.
Under sustained questioning before the Commons transport committee, Harper at first said he had not seen the report, before repeatedly declining to engage with the subject beyond saying that reforms in how the railways were run were necessary to make savings.
Rail firms are advising passengers to travel only if absolutely necessary during strike dates next week, on 13-14 and 16-17 December, saying there will be considerable disruption even if the stoppages are called off.
On Sunday night, the RMT rejected a first formal offer from train operators. Its general secretary, Mick Lynch, said the offer included proposals that the employers and Department for Transport “knew would not be acceptable to RMT members”.
One of the sticking points with the offer of a 4% pay increase in 2022 and the same sum in 2023 is that planned workplace reforms would include driver-only operation, in which drivers control train doors on some services, eliminating the need for a guard. The RMT and another rail union, Aslef, have long opposed this on safety and jobs grounds, and it was the main factor in the bitter strikes on Southern and elsewhere before the pandemic.
Labour said the government should be held responsible for rail disruption if it had forced the issue. The inclusion of a point that clearly breached a union red line is understood to have come as a surprise, coming immediately after a meeting with employers on Friday described as positive and that included a rail minister, Huw Merriman, for the first time.
Harper was asked by the Labour MP Grahame Morris about reports earlier this week saying the driver-only stipulation had been included at the request of either Downing Street or the Treasury.
“I haven’t seen the report so I can’t really comment on it,” Harper replied, prompting another Labour MP on the committee, Ben Bradshaw, to repeatedly press him on the matter.
“Detailed negotiations are taking place between employers and trade unions. It’s not the government’s role to micro-manage the detail of the reform,” Harper said, after trying to dodge the question several times.
Pushed yet again on the specifics, he said: “I met the trade unions. I was asked to facilitate an improvement. There was then an improved offer to the unions from Network Rail, and an offer then came on the train operating side that the unions could consider. I regret that they rejected that offer.”
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Told by Bradshaw that he was avoiding the question of whether the government had intervened over driver-only services, Harper replied: “I have been clear, you have to have reform to drive the savings. But I’m not going to provide a running commentary.”
He rejected the idea that government conditions might have stopped a deal, saying: “No one is trying to stop a deal, quite the reverse.”
Unlike his predecessor Grant Shapps, Harper has been more open to joining discussions between train companies and unions, and he said there had been some “constructive” talks, despite the lack of a deal.
On Monday, the RMT union also refused an improved offer from Network Rail and announced a plan for additional strikes, from 6pm on Christmas Eve until 7am on 27 December, which will mainly impact engineering works.
Asked by the Conservative MP Chris Loder about a government bill that could in effect outlaw rail strikes by setting out minimum required service levels, Harper said that given a lack of cross-party support, it would not pass in time to affect the current dispute.
“That legislation may well lead to an improvement in the medium to long term, but however fast it is progressed, given it has to go through both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, is not a solution to dealing with the industrial action we see at the moment,” he said.
Commenting after the hearing, the shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, said: “What an utterly shambolic way to conduct industrial relations – to simultaneously impose conditions while refusing to accept any responsibility for negotiation.
“If No 10 have forced the issue of driver-only trains into the negotiations at this last minute, then they, and they alone, will be responsible for Christmas chaos.”
