Opposition to break up of specialist railway police 


Transport union TSSA says its campaign to save the British Transport Police (BTP), which is being broken up by the Scottish government, has the backing of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow transport secretary Andy McDonnell. 


Rail unions ASLEF, RMT and TSSA, as well as the BTP, BTP Federation and Scotland’s passenger groups opposed the Railway Policing Bill (Scotland), which the TSSA says “will end 120 years of specialist railway policing in Scotland”, on the grounds of security, especially at a time of heightened terror risk. MSPs passed the bill last month, the first step towards Police Scotland taking on the role of the BTP. 


“It is nothing short of a national scandal that Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP are killing off British Transport Police and downgrading the security of Scotland’s railways,” said TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes. “And Theresa May stands deliberately and idly by because she is understood to be hatching plans to do the same and kill BTP off in England and Wales.”


The union called on Corbyn to pledge that the next Labour government will maintain the BTP in Scotland, England and Wales as a matter of national security.


The union is also urging people to sign and share its online petition.

https://www.change.org/p/scottish-government-save-the-british-transport-police

https://www.tssa.org.uk/en/whats-new/news/index.cfm/tssa-launch-petition-to-save-british-transport-police