Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has branded the rail strikes “callous” as he said his daughter’s exam day would be affected.
He revealed his family would be hit in a debate in the commons over the RMT led action with three strike days this week.
Conservative Anna Firth (Southend West) raised the impact on students.
She said: “Those on the other side who refuse to condemn these strikes have no regard to the potential effect on the exam results of children taking GSCEs and A-levels up and down the country.
“Both AQA and Edexcel, both well known exam boards, have confirmed that they will not allow the strikes or their impact to be used as grounds for appeal for students who arrive late or perhaps are unable to arrive at all.”
“I have a daughter who is taking an exam on Thursday. Thursday’s a strike day, she will now go in by car.
“I can see the stress is already building on her because she’s now worried about getting there… It’s a callous approach.”
However Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh accused the transport secretary of failing to head off the strike.
She said: “Should these strikes go ahead tomorrow they will represent a catastrophic failure of leadership.
“Ministers owe it to all those impacted by this serious disruption to get around the table for last ditch talks, to sort it out and avert this disruption.”
She added: “Not only has he been boycotting the talks, he’s tied the hands of those at the table. He and his department failed to give the train operating companies, a party to these talks, any mandate to negotiate whatsoever… These talks are a sham because ministers have set them up to fail.”
