LABOUR ON THE PICKET LINE

Keir Starmer is between a rock and a hard place at the moment.  He does not want to discuss the rail strikes - as he wants to remain firmly seated on the fence.  He neither wants to upset the trade unions that bankroll his party, or the millions of workers who will be adversely affected by the strikes.  As the strikes commenced on Tuesday his social media accounts fell silent.  24 hours earlier he banned his frontbenchers from joining the RMT picket lines.  He didn't slap a ban on his backbenchers, because he knew that would be pointless...

Labour backbenchers on the RMT picket line on Tuesday - Beth Winter, Kim Johnson,
Rachael Maskell, Richard Burgon, Zarah Sultana, Ian Byrne, Rebecca Long-Bailey,
Dan Carden and Paula Barker

Diane Abbott and several other MPs were on separate picket lines and the former shadow home secretary tweeted a defiant message to her party leader...

Other Labour MPs on the picket line included Tahir Ali, Ian Lavery, Andy McDonald, John McDonnell, Kate Osborne, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Mick Whitley and Nadia Whittome.  Sam Tarry was on the picket line with a loudspeaker on Tuesday, but his lover Angela Rayner was nowhere to be seen, clearly adhering to her leader's ban.  Clive Lewis hilariously tweeted apologies that he couldn't be on the picket line - as there were no trains running!