• Strike action goes ahead on tube tomorrow as planned as RMT accuses Mayor of trying to blame workers for TFL financial crisis.

RMT accused Mayor Sadiq Khan of playing to the gallery, instead of pressuring ministers to deliver a long-term funding deal for TfL, ahead of another 24-hour stoppage on the tube network tomorrow which goes ahead as planned.

Speaking to the media yesterday (Tuesday), Mayor Khan told striking workers to "wake up and smell the coffee" and that industrial action would not make securing a deal with the government any easier.

Implying the RMT didn't care about the interests of its own members or the wider city, Mayor Khan said: "I for some time have been lobbying for a long-term deal.

"It is really important for anyone who cares as passionately about tube workers, transport workers, our city as RMT claims to, to realise we have got to be together on this."

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said:

"If Sadiq Khan spent as much time putting pressure on ministers for a long-term TfL funding deal, instead of accepting their cuts agenda and attacking our members, there would be no need for a strike.

"However, as it stands, tube staff face a raid on their pensions and at least 600 job cuts, if the government get their way. It is tube workers being told to take the hit for the political failures of City Hall and the DfT which is the issue at the heart of the dispute.

"No self-respecting trade unionist would accept that, particularly given the sterling work done by tube staff keeping Londoners safe throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The Mayor keeps telling us to get round the table and we remain open to talks but it has to be face to face with those able to give us the assurances we need without being bound up by political game playing. We will not be de-railed in our determination to reach a just settlement that protects jobs and pensions of tube workers."