Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
John Crace

Grant Shapps’s rail strike blame game joins fellow ministers’ absurdities in a vision of Tory Wonderland

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, speaking in the House of Commons
Grant Shapps still believes forcing unions into days of planned strikes is going to play out well for Tories. Photograph: UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/PA

“A vision of Labour’s Britain”, tweeted the reliably dim Tory backbencher Mark Jenkinson. This was about the rail strikes. Someone should let him know that there’s been a Tory government for the last 12 years. Who knows, maybe Dopey Mark will find a food bank in his own constituency and blame the opposition for that too. If only Labour had done more to have got elected in 2010, 2015, 2017, 2019 (delete where necessary) then there wouldn’t be so many people living in poverty.

There again, maybe one shouldn’t be too harsh on Dopey Mark. After all, many in the cabinet are also suffering from similar delusions. Not least Grant Shapps, who had been sent out on to the airwaves to say that the strikes were everybody else’s fault but his own. When he found out who the transport secretary was he was going to give him a piece of his mind. It was totally irresponsible for Labour to have allowed the strikes to go ahead … Er.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.