Starmer says Tarry was sacked because he “made up policy on the hoof”

Keir Starmer has said Sam Tarry was sacked as shadow transport minister because he “booked himself on to media programmes without permission” and “made up policy on the hoof”.

Tarry was removed from his shadow minister role after he joined members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) on a rail strike picket line on Wednesday.

Speaking to BBC News today, the Labour leader said: “Sam Tarry was sacked because he booked himself on to media programmes without permission and then made up policy on the hoof, and that can’t be tolerated in any organisation, because we’ve got collective responsibility.”

He added: “So far as the industrial action is concerned, I completely understand the frustration of so many working people who’ve seen the prices go up, seen inflation through the roof and their wages haven’t gone up

“So the Labour Party will always been on the side of working people, but we need collective responsibility as any organisation does.”

Commenting on Wednesday about the decision to sack Tarry, a Labour spokesperson said: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.

“As a government-in-waiting, any breach of collective responsibility is taken extremely seriously and for these reasons Sam Tarry has been removed from the frontbench.”

LabourList understands that the decision to sack Tarry was made over comments he made in a Sky News interview during which he suggested workers could not be offered a below-inflation pay rise. Labour’s position is that pay negotiations are for unions and ministers.

In an interview with Sky News this morning, John McDonnell said it was a “severe mistake” by Starmer’s advisers to sack  Tarry and urged Labour to “come off the fence and be on the side of a just cause – the workers”.

The former Shadow Chancellor told viewers: “Sam went on the picket, 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’s a just cause.

“And now we’re told he’s 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’s a silly, silly situation to get in to.”

He added: “Rachel Reeves went on an interview and made up policy on rail nationalisation which had to be contradicted by the shadow spokesperson on transport within hours. I didn’t see Rachel Reeves being sacked.”

In an interview on Monday, Reeves was asked about Labour’s stance on nationalisation of water, energy companies and rail companies. The Shadow Chancellor said: “Within our fiscal rules, to be spending billions of pounds on nationalising things, that just doesn’t stack up against our fiscal rules.”

Following the interview, a Labour Party spokesperson said: “We are pragmatic about public ownership as long as it sits within our fiscal rules – a point Rachel was underlining in the interview by referencing this framework. For example, we know there is a positive role for rail in public ownership.”

Speaking to BBC News today, Diane Abbott said: “Everybody knows Sam Tarry wasn’t sacked for what he said in interviews. He was sacked because he went on a picket line. And that’s extraordinary.”

The Labour MP added: “It’s always been the case that shadow ministers can go on picket lines. John Prescott went on the miners’ picket line in the 1980s. Years ago, Shirley Williams who was a Labour government minister went on a picket line.

“It is quite wrong to sack shadow ministers because they go on picket lines – it’s also completely unprecedented.”

Ahead of earlier strikes by the RMT in June, Starmer’s office circulated a message stating that “frontbenchers including [parliamentary private secretaries] should not be on picket lines”.

LabourList understands that frontbenchers were not sent a similar memo ahead of Wednesday’s strike action, but Starmer said on Tuesday: “The Labour Party in opposition needs to be the Labour Party in power. And a government doesn’t go on picket lines.”