Liverpool MPs have reacted to being featured on the Daily Mail front page after joining striking rail workers on a picket line.
City MPs Dan Carden, Paula Barker, Kim Johnson and Ian Byrne were among a group identified by the Daily Mail in a front page that attempted to target Labour members for supporting RMT members out on strike yesterday. The Liverpool Labour politicians were pictured at a picket line outside London's Victoria station.
The newspaper chose to circle the heads of the Liverpool and fellow Labour MPs on the picket line next to a headline stating 'Labour Isn't Working'. The front page has been widely ridiculed by many on social media who have pointed out that Labour have not been in government for 12 years and that it is the Conservatives who are failing to work with the rail unions to end the strikes.
READ MORE: Liverpool sends important message to rail workers as strike action begins
The story also made reference to reports that Labour frontbenchers had been warned to stay away from picket lines during the strike. A message from leader Keir Starmer's office told shadow ministers to steer clear of the strikes.
The ECHO has spoken to some of the Liverpool Labour MPs who were pictured in the front page image to get their response. Liverpool Walton MP Dan Carden said: "I stood on picket lines at 8 years of age when my dad fought against casualisation on Liverpool’s docks. He was sacked for refusing to cross a picket line.
"No one can tell me my place is not on a picket line. I will always stand shoulder to shoulder with workers defending jobs, pay and conditions. It is no surprise that the billionaire-owned press want to demonise organised workers and attack the democratic right to strike.
"The rail workers are standing up for all of us by saying ‘enough is enough’. Workers are right to demand a pay rise. We need a government that will tax shameless profiteering and tax and redistribute extreme wealth."
Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne said: "Unfortunately as a backbencher in opposition, it’s not in my gift to solve the dispute. But if I held Grant Shapps lofty position I would in a heartbeat; halt compulsory redundancies, give an inflation-proofed rise and renationalise our railways."
Speaking about why she joined striking workers on the picket lines, Liverpool Wavertree MP Paula Barker told ITV News: "We have some of the most draconian anti-trade union laws in the western world, so when workers take industrial action it is no mean feat. This is a lawful strike and people need to remember that, it is people's right to withdraw their labour if they have a legal ballot."
She added: "We are going to see much more in the months ahead, with other public sector workers balloting for action and we can't afford to set worker against worker. It is in all our interests for workers to be treated with dignity and respect. If we can't stand by workers in the worst cost of living crisis since the 1950s, then there's something surely wrong with that."
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