South Western Railway strike: Christmas chaos on railways as general election campaign looks set for wave of walk-outs

Workers on South Western Railway are to strike for 27 days in a long-running dispute over guards on trains.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union will walk out between 2 December and New Year’s Day, threatening huge disruption for commuters and Christmas shoppers.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash: “As long as the company continues to refuse to give assurances on the future operational role of the guard, we will remain in dispute.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said: “We urge the RMT and South Western to get round the table and remove the threat of this damaging action.”

The general election campaign looks set to coincide with a wave of strike action, with university staff also announcing walk-outs.

Jo Grady, the UCU’s general secretary, said: “The first wave of strikes will hit universities later this month unless the employers start talking to us seriously about how they are going to deal with rising pension costs and declining pay and conditions.”

A Universities UK spokesperson said: “We are hopeful that the dispute can be resolved without industrial action; but plans are in place to ensure that any potential disruption to students and staff is minimised.”

Ms Leadsom tried to connect the action to the Labour Party.

“CWU’s threat to ruin Christmas and disrupt the postal system during the general election is just a preview of things to come if Jeremy Corbyn is ever allowed near the keys to Number 10,” she said.

“The timing of this threat is clearly politically calculated and would disrupt both the election and people’s Christmas deliveries.”

However, the CWU hit back on Twitter. The union tweeted: “1. We have not yet called action. 2. We had our ballot in play well before the election. Don’t blame us for your incompetence. 3. If you didn’t privatise Royal Mail we wouldn’t be here.”