Unions are close to organising co-ordinated strike action “very soon” following the “horror story” of the past few weeks, a union boss has told Sky News.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, accused the government of “aiding and abetting” employers earning millions in profits but not handing that to workers.
She confirmed Unite, the UK’s second biggest union after Unison, has been in talks with other unions after the RMT and Unison have also been talking about strike action.
Ms Graham told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: “I think there could be up to a million people on strike very, very soon.
“What we’re seeing – and I think we just have to take this back as to why people go on strike – is that they [the government] can put in all the anti-trade union they want, they can pretend it is union barons pressing big red buttons but this is about anger, anger in workplaces, both in the public sector and in the private sector.”
Asked if the UK could see a general strike, where multiple sectors organise strikes at the same time, this winter, Ms Graham said: “We could see multiple strikes this winter but what people call it is really up to them.
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“There will be multiple strikes and I know in my own union there have been 450 strikes in less than a year, 90,000 Unite members have been out on strike, £200m has been won back in the pockets of those workers.
“That is the job of trade unions, that’s what we should be doing and that’s what we’re doing more and more of, so I can see that that will escalate.”
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Many of Unite’s members work for the NHS and Ms Graham said doctors and nurses going on strike is “a very real option that is now being looked at”.
She also criticised new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who faced multiple NHS strikes when he was health secretary under David Cameron and Theresa May over junior doctor contracts.
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‘It was a mistake to fly blind’
“I don’t know what his plans are for this country as chancellor but anything towards privatising the NHS or anything that is going to make poor people poorer, that really is a difficulty,” Ms Graham said.
She added: “I think that we are witnessing a horror story, to be honest.
“It’s like watching a film behind your hands and every time you look there’s something worse happening and I think that we’ve got a real problem on our hands.
“Jeremy Hunt is not the answer to what is happening here.
“Jeremy Hunt, if you heard him yesterday, was talking about a second round of austerity and I think what people will not put up with, after the 2008 financial crash this country went through 10 years of austerity, 10 years of pain, 10 years of struggle, workers and their families – and they did that because of a financial crash.”
Image: Junior doctors protest outside the Department of Health while Jeremy Hunt was health secretary
Ms Graham said there now needs to be a “change of government” but admitted she thinks Ms Truss and the Tory government will be “clinging on right to the very end”.
She said Labour has a real opportunity to win an election now but warned it is not a “moment to play safe”.
“This is not a moment to say okay, they’re doing so badly we just have to sit on the sidelines here,” she said.
“This is the moment to take this by the scruff of the neck, to say this is what we need to do, to come up with a solution to these problems and to really lay out what Labour’s stall is.
“Get some mettle, lay out your stall and say what people should vote for not just what they should vote against.”
Comedy writer Bill Dare, – who worked on shows including Spitting Image and Dead Ringers – has died after an accident overseas, his agent said.
Described as a “super producer” by his peers, Dare, 64, worked on eight series of hugely popular satire puppet show Spitting Image.
Airing on ITV during the 1980s and 1990s, the show delighted in lampooning public figures including politicians, celebrities and royalty, winning BAFTAs and Emmys. It was rebooted in 2020.
Dare also created Dead Ringers, a comedy impressions show broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
He also produced The Now Show, a satirical take on the news which ran on Radio 4 from 1998 to 2024.
Dare worked on a wide range of comedy shows during his career, including the radio production of The Mary Whitehouse Experience in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He had also written several novels.
In a statement released on Monday, his agent JFL Agency confirmed he died at the weekend.
A spokesperson said: “We are shocked and greatly saddened to have to announce the death of our brilliant client Bill Dare, who died at the weekend following an accident overseas.
“Our thoughts are with his wife Lucy, daughter Rebecca, and with all of Bill’s family and friends who will be devastated by his loss.
“Bill was a truly legendary producer and writer, and his comedy instincts were second to none.”
Image: Oasis depicted on Spitting Image in 1996. Pic: ITV/Shutterstock
Colleagues were quick to pay tribute and reflect on his talent.
Impressionist Jon Culshaw wrote on X: “It’s impossible to express the unreal sense of loss at the passing of the incredible Bill Dare. The wisest comedy alchemist and the dearest, dearest friend. Much love to Lucy and all Bill’s family and friends. We shall all miss him more than we can say.”
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David Baddiel posted on the social media platform: “Just heard that the original producer of The Mary Whitehouse Experience on radio, Bill Dare, has died. Bill was an amazing creative force. I owe him much. RIP.”
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Former EastEnders actress Tracy-Ann Oberman said she was “devastated” and that her “entire comedy career was down to Bill”.
She wrote: “When I was on the BBC Radio 4 rep company early on in career – I ran into Bill in the corridors – He asked if I was good at accents. I said yes.
“He cast me in a sketch show. I had to do about 15 different accents. We recorded in front of a live audience at Broadcasting House – afterwards Bill said ‘Why have I never met you – you’re going to have a big career’.
“He was incredibly loyal and supportive and really opened a path for me into the R4 comedy world and then TV having come out of the RSC and theatre it was all new. I will always be grateful. Fly high Bill.”
Comedian and writer Mark Steel wrote: “This is so grim. Bill was a compassionate hearty soul with the ability to be beautifully grumpy, a marvellously thoughtful comic mind.
“He’d argue but always listen and you’d always laugh, he made a million shows and wanted them all to matter and would have made a million more.”
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Have I Got News for You writer Pete Sinclair said: “I am utterly devastated by Bill’s death. I still can’t believe it. He was a comedy genius. A hugely talented writer as well as a brilliant producer. A close friend and co-writer. I cannot begin to say how much I’ll miss him.”
Julia McKenzie, comedy commissioner for Radio 4, said: “I am so terribly sorry to hear this tragic news and my thoughts are with Bill’s wife, family and friends.
“Bill has been a huge part of Radio 4 comedy for decades, as a writer and producer, and listeners will have heard his legendary name at the end of many of their favourite shows.
“Bill was a comedy obsessive, and very instinctive about making the funniest choices when it came to writing, directing and editing.
“He cared so much about his work that in the production booth during Dead Ringers you’d see him crouched over the script, utterly focused on the show.
“He was funny and very dry in person, amusingly cynical when he needed to be and always pushed to keep the comedy he made, and particularly satire, spiky.
“I’ve known and worked with him for 18 years and like many I can’t believe he has gone, he will leave a big hole in the comedy world and in our hearts.”
An ex-prison officer who boasted about performing a sex act on an inmate who “manipulated” her has been jailed.
Mother-of-one Katie Evans, 26, burst into tears in court as the judge described how she was “corrupted” by an “experienced criminal” not long after she started work at Doncaster Prison when she was just 21.
As well as starting an intimate relationship with the prisoner, Daniel Brownley, Evans had more than 140 phone calls with him, moved money around bank accounts for him, and supplied him with information the prison held on him, the court heard.
Brownley had been jailed in 2016 for attempted robbery, burglary and handling stolen goods, the court heard.
“It appears you indulged in some form of sexual activity in the prison. It has been described that on one occasion you had oral sex with him,” Judge Jeremy Richardson KC told Evans at Sheffield Crown Court.
“It is truly a terrible situation for a judge to be passing sentence on a former prison officer who has been branded a corrupt prison officer.”
Judge Richardson told Evans “he corrupted you and not the reverse”, adding: “I’m entirely satisfied you were manipulated by an experienced criminal to assist him.”
He said Evans was “young and immature” at the time but added: “Your misconduct materially affected the good order and discipline of the prison.”
“You were inexperienced and immature but that is, however, no excuse for what you did.”
Judge Richardson said the sentence of 21 months should have been longer but, “purely as an act of mercy”, he reduced it to take into account the effect it will have on Evans’ relationship with her young daughter and the difficulties she will have in prison as a former officer.
Evans, of Hatfield, Doncaster, admitted misconduct in a public office at a previous hearing.
Still crying, she waved at family members in the public gallery as she was led from the dock.