Union boss Mick Lynch has said Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has to show he is “on the side of the people” before the next general election.
The general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union criticised Sir Keirand the Labour Party when asked about how long strikes on the railway could potentially go on for.
He said that despite the disturbance industrial action has caused, most people respect that RMT members have put forward a differing opinion, which opposition politicians have failed to do.
“It’s a shame that Labour and others can’t show that they’re distinct from the kind of consensus that got us into this trouble where working people are struggling in the cost of living crisis,” Mr Lynch told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday.
“It seems to be ignored by the political class to a certain extent.”
He said that at the minute it is a “shame” that people “cannot spot the difference” between Labour and the Conservatives.
Image: Mick Lynch (R) said nobody knows what Sir Keir’s five missions are
“He’s got to show that he’s on the side of working people and progressive politics, and I don’t think we’ve seen that,” he said.
When asked why people are not seeing this from Sir Keir, Mr Lynch hit out at the Labour leader again, saying he has five missions but “nobody knows what they are”.
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“He should be saying something about workers rights. He should say stuff about the NHS, looking after people who are struggling in the housing market, council houses for the masses, controlling rents, addressing all sorts of stuff about what’s going to happen in the imbalance in our society,” Mr Lynch said.
“He’s not saying any of that. He won’t dare mention the word socialism.
“I think he could be on the side of the people, but he’s got to show it to us before the election.”
When quizzed by Ridge on what point the RMT “calls it a day” on strike action, Mr Lynch said until an agreement has been reached.
“We don’t want to be on strike, we would much rather get an agreement we want in both London Transport and on the National Railway,” he said.
“We will keep going in that campaign until we get a document that our members want to support in a referendum.”
Meanwhile, Sir Keir told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that he would tackle public sector pay disputes and negotiations with doctors differently if he were prime minister.
“We would be around the table negotiating and we would settle this dispute,” he said.
Adding that he has “always been a reformer”, Sir Keir said the way to invest in public services is to grow the economy, and that he doesn’t care if he is labelled a “fiscal Conservative” as a result of this policy.
Trevor Phillips will host Sky News’ agenda-setting flagship political talk show when it returns in September.
Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, marks their 50th birthday amid a year of rising institutional and geopolitical adoption of the world’s first cryptocurrency.
The identity of Nakamoto remains one of the biggest mysteries in crypto, with speculation ranging from cryptographers like Adam Back and Nick Szabo to broader theories involving government intelligence agencies.
While Nakamoto’s identity remains anonymous, the Bitcoin (BTC) creator is believed to have turned 50 on April 5 based on details shared in the past.
According to archived data from his P2P Foundation profile, Nakamoto once claimed to be a 37-year-old man living in Japan and listed his birthdate as April 5, 1975.
Nakamoto’s anonymity has played a vital role in maintaining the decentralized nature of the Bitcoin network, which has no central authority or leadership.
The Bitcoin wallet associated with Nakamoto, which holds over 1 million BTC, has laid dormant for more than 16 years despite BTC rising from $0 to an all-time high above $109,000 in January.
Satoshi Nakamoto statue in Lugano, Switzerland. Source: Cointelegraph
Nakamoto’s 50th birthday comes nearly a month after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile, marking the first major step toward integrating Bitcoin into the US financial system.
Nakamoto’s legacy: a “cornerstone of economic sovereignty”
“At 50, Nakamoto’s legacy is no longer just code; it’s a cornerstone of economic sovereignty,” according to Anndy Lian, author and intergovernmental blockchain expert.
“Bitcoin’s reserve status signals trust in its scarcity and resilience,” Lian told Cointelegraph, adding:
“What’s fascinating is the timing. Fifty feels symbolic — half a century of life, mirrored by Bitcoin’s journey from a white paper to a trillion-dollar asset. Nakamoto’s vision of trustless, peer-to-peer money has outgrown its cypherpunk roots, entering the halls of power.”
However, lingering questions about Nakamoto remain unanswered, including whether they still hold the keys to their wallet, which is “a fortune now tied to US policy,” Lian said.
In February, Arkham Intelligence published findings that attribute 1.096 million BTC — then valued at more than $108 billion — to Nakamoto. That would place him above Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on the global wealth rankings, according to data shared by Coinbase director Conor Grogan.
If accurate, this would make Nakamoto the world’s 16th richest person.
Despite the growing interest in Nakamoto’s identity and holdings, his early decision to remain anonymous and inactive has helped preserve Bitcoin’s decentralized ethos — a principle that continues to define the cryptocurrency to this day.
The United States stock market lost more in value over the April 4 trading day than the entire cryptocurrency market is worth, as fears over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to ramp up.
On April 4, the US stock market lost $3.25 trillion — around $570 billion more than the entire crypto market’s $2.68 trillion valuation at the time of publication.
Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market”
Among the Magnificent-7 stocks, Tesla (TSLA) led the losses on the day with a 10.42% drop, followed by Nvidia (NVDA) down 7.36% and Apple (AAPL) falling 7.29%, according to TradingView data.
The significant decline across the board signals that the Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market” after falling 6% across the trading day, trading resource account The Kobeissi Letter said in an April 4 X post. This is the largest daily decline since March 16, 2020.
“US stocks have now erased a massive -$11 TRILLION since February 19 with recession odds ABOVE 60%,” it added. The Kobessi Letter said Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement was “historic” and if the tariffs continue, a recession will be “impossible to avoid.”
Even some crypto skeptics have pointed out the contrast between Bitcoin’s performance and the US stock market during the recent period of macro uncertainty.
Stock market commentator Dividend Hero told his 203,200 X followers that he has “hated on Bitcoin in the past, but seeing it not tank while the stock market does is very interesting to me.”
Meanwhile, technical trader Urkel said Bitcoin “doesn’t appear to care one bit about tariff wars and markets tanking.” Bitcoin is trading at $83,749 at the time of publication, down 0.16% over the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data.