London mayor sounds off over strikes

Tory London mayor Boris Johnson has jumped on the bandwagon of calls for more draconian strike laws. He has proposed that a strike should only be lawful if 50% of members balloted have taken part in the vote.

The CBI employers’ organisation and the free-market think tank Policy Exchange have called for strikes to be lawful only if 40% of all the members in a workplace voted for it.

Labour MP John McDonnell said that if such principles had applied to the last general election, only 38 MPs would have been able to take up their seats. And PCS civil service union leader Mark Serwotka pointed out that Britain “already has the most restrictive trade union laws in Europe.”