Speaking to Sky News, he said: “I don’t know who is advising Keir Starmer but this is a completely unnecessary row that has been invented just at a time when the Tories are tearing themselves apart and we have got the maximum opportunity, I think, to gain an advantage in the polls, build the support to take us into government, we are having this completely unnecessary row. “Sam went on the picket lines like minister after minister, shadow minister after shadow minister, over the years in support of workers who are asking for a decent pay rise, it is a just cause. “Now we are told he has been sacked not because he went on the picket lines but because he made statements on the picket lines. But what was he supposed to do, go on there and wear a gag? It is a silly, silly situation to get into. I think we just need to accept that there will be a wave of industrial action now inevitably from union after union because their members are voting overwhelmingly for industrial action because they are saying ‘we can’t accept a pay cut’ and we have got to come off the fence and be on the side of a just cause. The workers, I think they have got it right. “This is an unnecessary dispute and I regret, whoever has advised Keir Starmer on this I think has made a severe mistake.”
