Minister visits Birmingham amid calls for Government to intervene in bin strike

A minister is visiting Birmingham as the Government was urged to intervene in a dispute involving refuse collectors which is leading to tonnes of rubbish piling up on the city’s streets.

Local government minister Jim McMahon will meet council chiefs in an effort to end the bin strike and the Government will “not hesitate to act” if they need support, Downing Street said.

Members of Unite in Birmingham launched an all-out strike last month in a dispute over pay and jobs, which is causing misery for residents who say they face a public health crisis.

The council declared the dispute a major incident earlier this week in a bid to increase collections of bin sacks.

Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham has written to the Government saying it can no longer “sit on its hands”.

In a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, the Unite leader said talks with the council were a “charade” because officials had to defer to commissioners who were called in by the previous Conservative government to run the authority’s finances.

“This is an escalating issue and the Government cannot simply sit on its hands saying ‘nothing to do with us. We can’t get involved’,” she wrote.

“Let me be very clear, that the pay of these workers is being cut by a Labour council under your watch.

“The current escalation increasingly looks like a declaration of war on these workers.”

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters: “We want to see an agreement reached immediately on the waste dispute in Birmingham, which is causing misery and disruption to residents.

“It’s right that this continues to be a locally led response, but minister McMahon will be visiting Birmingham today to meet with Birmingham’s senior officers, commissioners and political leadership to discuss this issue.

“We will not hesitate to act should the council require additional support.”

Labour Party chairwoman Ellie Reeves said Mr McMahon would be having “conversations” in Birmingham and that she did not want to “cut across negotiations” with unions.

“It’s a local issue but it’s also completely unacceptable and intolerable for residents in Birmingham, and we want to see a resolution to that dispute,” she told BBC Radio 4’s World At One.

Government minister Lucy Powell urged Unite to “step up” and continue talks with the council to reach an agreement.

Responding to criticism from the Conservatives, the Commons Leader told MPs: “I was in Birmingham just last weekend visiting my in-laws and my husband’s family and the situation there is totally unacceptable, it is awful what people are living with and we want to see it end and end immediately.”

She added: “I’ve no problem in saying that the trade union there, Unite, they absolutely need to step up here and get back round the table and come to an agreement.

“I think there is a reasonable agreement on the table and the trade union and the council should come to that very quickly.”

Shadow Commons leader Jesse Norman had said the situation in Birmingham “simply cannot continue” and questioned why ministers had not criticised Unite.

He highlighted donations from Unite to Labour candidates, now MPs, at last year’s general election as he asked: “Does the Leader think there could be any relationship between the Government’s reluctance to call out Unite now on this disastrous situation in Birmingham and the £500,000 in donations that its MPs have just received?”