Mick Lynch shared his alarming prediction on what would happen to trade unions if Liz Truss was elected to be the next Conservative leader during his broadcast rounds this week.
The general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union was defending Wednesday’s industrial action – which has seen 40,000 rail workers go on strike over pay, job losses and working conditions – when he weighed in on the Tory race.
Presenter Ed Balls asked the trade unionist on ITV’s Good Morning Britain how he would act if Truss – or her opponent Rishi Sunak – followed through on their promises to make rail strikes illegal.
Lynch replied: “We will look at the law and see what we can do in the courts, but if they make it impossible to have lawful industrial action, then workers will have to take unlawful industrial action.
“That’s a matter for them at the time and we’ll have to see what it says.”
He then referred back to past attitudes towards strike action, claiming: ″We used to charge at trade unionists with sabres.
“The way Liz Truss has gone from being a liberal to an ultra right hardliner, maybe she’s going to bring that back as well.
“No doubt, she’ll say bring in the army next.”
Truss was a Liberal Democrat while studying at the University of Oxford, before changing to the Conservative Party.
She then campaigned as a Remainer in the run-up to the EU referendum in 2016, but has since switched camps and is seen as a keen Brexiteer. She even accused her opponent Sunak of “Project Fear”, a term used by Brexiteers to diminish worries about life outside of the EU, in a debate on Monday.
This week, Truss has also vowed to legislate for minimum service levels on critical national infrastructure within her first 30 days in Downing Street. This is a step further than the Conservatives’ manifesto from 2019, which promised minimum services should still continue during industrial action on the railways.
Truss’ proposal could also affect other industries including teachers, postal workers and the energy sector, as minimum thresholds for staffing levels would have to be reached.
Lynch claimed her suggestion was “the biggest attack on trade union and civil rights since labour unions were legalised in 1871”, and said unions would unite to create the “biggest resistance”.
Lynch, who became an internet sensation during the first wave of rail strikesback in June, also attacked Truss on Tuesday night when speaking to the BBC.
He said: “I think she’s a rightwing fundamentalist, actually, we’re going to have one of the most extreme leaders if she succeeds, that we’ve ever had in the prime minister’s office.
“This is a direct attack on one of the pillars of our democracy. One of the founding bases of any democracy is the right for a trade union is to freely organise and take appropriate industrial action.
“She’s seeking to make effective industrial action illegal, so people will have to use other means to take action and respond to the employers.”
He said Truss wants the unionists to “surrender” so we have a “low-paid, cowed workforce” in the UK.
“The rest of the country, if you believe in democracy and believe in a liberal economy, cannot support what she’s standing for, because it’s oppression of working people.”
Truss is currently leading the polls among Conservative Party members in the race to replace Boris Johnson as the new prime minister.
