Jeremy Corbyn joined striking railway staff outside Newcastle Central Station on the third day of RMT's national walkout.
The former Labour leader, a staunch supporter of trade unions, spoke to picketing workers outside the front of the station on Saturday morning. Mr Corbyn, who is due to visit South Tyneside later on Saturday to commemorate the Jarrow Crusade, travelled up to the North East on Friday night.
He told ChronicleLive he supports the strike because he wants to see a "safe, well-managed railway" and fair pay for staff who he stressed worked throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read more: How RMT strikes affect trains around Newcastle
Speaking to cheers, Mr Corbyn told union members: "I support the RMT because they're a wonderful union, they're standing up for their members and they're standing up for their industry.
"This Government poured billions into the private sector, all though through Covid, with no conditions, whatsoever, on most companies: no guarantees of jobs, no guarantees of protection, just protection for shareholders and the owners of those companies.
"The train operating companies received huge amounts of money to run trains, throughout Covid. RMT members worked throughout Covid, putting themselves at enormous risk. RMT members showed their determination to ensure that a public service was delivered and is always delivered. They are absolutely the lifeblood at the centre of our labour movement.
"This Government is now getting rid of a large number of railway staff and refusing a pay rise which will even keep up with the rate of inflation. So what they're doing is post-Covid punishing all those who did everything to keep the country running and to keep services running, by throwing them on the scrapheap, by refusing wages, so we have falling living standards and falling incomes all over the country."
Mr Corbyn was joined on the picket line by dozens of people with placards reading slogans such as "Cut fares, not staff" and Stop the cuts".
Anil Khullar, PCS National Black members Committee rep for the Northern Region, said: “We’re here today because it’s an attack on jobs, attack on our pensions, attack on working conditions and we need to fight against it.
"We stand in solidarity with workers and really everyone is feeling the pinch. In 2022, we shouldn’t have foodbanks were one of the richest counties in the world.
"The turnout is amazing and everyone has come together to fight against the resistance."
Cait Huntley, from Acorn, added: "We are here as a community union for working class people and I think it’s something that impacts everyone. We want our transport functioning well and we want workers to be happy and we stand with them."
Gateshead MP, Ian Mearns, chair of the RMT parliamentary group made clear his support for the strike and praised RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch.
He said: "I think Mick Lynch this week and last week has been absolutely fantastic in terms of taking on the media, taking on the pundits and taking on the naysayers in all the television appearances he's made."
Mr Mearns accused the Government of "avoidance of the truth" about the strike and its refusal to sit down with unions, pointing out that Network Rail and some of the operators whose staff are striking are owned, or at least part-owned, by the Government.
He said: "We only have to listen to the lies, complicity and avoidance of the truth, from the Government, about why this dispute is taking place.
"Grant Shapps (Transport Secretary) says the RMT should negotiate with employers, of course, escaping the fact that the Department for Transport - which he oversees - owns Network Rail, owns Northern, owns South East trains, owns LNER directly, he is the employer, he is the employer, that lying Shapps is the employer."
"This is a Government built on half-truths and blatant lies."
Mr Shapps has previously described claims from the RMT that he is “wrecking” negotiations as a “total lie”.
In a statement released on Friday, a Department for Transport spokesperson said: “It is entirely false to claim the Government is blocking negotiations. We have said from the outset we urge the unions and industry to agree a deal that is fair for railway staff, passengers and taxpayers.”
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