Shadow Transport Minister In "Listening Mode" Ahead Of Meeting With Train Drivers' Union

Jerome Mayhew was first elected as a Conservative MP in 2019 (Alamy)

6 min read2 hr

The shadow minister for transport has said that he is “not anti-union at all”, ahead of a meeting with the general secretary of the train drivers’ union this week.

Jerome Mayhew, recently appointed shadow transport minister, told PoliticsHome that he is in “listening mode” – including listening to the views of trade union leaders. This week, he will meet with Mick Whelan, the general secretary of the train drivers' union ASLEF.

“I have a sneaking suspicion I'm not going to agree with him on everything, but I'm very interested to hear his views, because he's a key player in the sector and I want to learn,” Mayhew said.

“A lot of people will talk to the industry but they ignore the unions just because we're Tories… but actually, it's interesting to hear what his analysis is.”

In the run-up to last year’s general election and in the months since, Conservative politicians have often accused Labour of being under the control of their “union paymasters”. In fact, this term was used a record 39 times in Parliament in 2024, according to analysis by PoliticsHome.

“I'm not anti-union at all,” Mayhew insisted. “There is what has traditionally been an imbalance in bargaining power between employer and employees. In some sectors, unionisation is a form of answer to that.”

The MP said he wanted to hear from "everyone in the industry, including unions,” to hear “their version of the truth”.

“We should be humble enough as an opposition that's just received a very substantial kicking from the electorate to say, right, let's go back to first principles, let's learn from the industry.”

But he does believe the Labour government has been too led by the demands of unions. Former Labour transport secretary Louise Haigh was accused of “going rogue” when she offered a 15 per cent pay hike to train drivers last August.

Mayhew also claimed that unions will be the “only winners” from the Employment Rights Bill currently going through Parliament.

“It's going to cost business, by the government's own analysis, an estimate of more than £5bn a year. And this is a time when government also tells us, in a rather panicked move, that growth is their number one priority.”

Mick Whelan, general secretary of ASLEF, spoke at the Labour Party Conference last year (Alamy)

In his new shadow ministerial brief, Mayhew is considering how a future Conservative government might grapple with the potential decision by the current government to nationalise the railways.

But given a rail nationalisation bill still has not come in, Mayhew theorised that “something has gone wrong inside the Labour government as to their plans”.

“There is a deafening silence, frankly, as to the nitty gritty of their proposals. So we're all left in the dark, including the industry.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves also announced the government’s support for a third runway at Heathrow last week, arguing that the major airport was at the “heart of the country’s openness”.

While Mayhew said his party was supportive of the principle, they have many questions about how the project would be deliverable.

“I suspect this announcement was a panicked measure by the Chancellor realising that she's put a handbrake turn on any kind of growth in this country, and then she's looking for any lever she can pull.”

So what would a Conservative government be doing differently if they were still running the country?

“Well, I can confidently say that even if we did nothing and carried on what we were doing before – we had the fastest growing economy in the G7 – we'd be in a much, much better place than the disastrous initial six months of Labour,” Mayhew said.

Prior to becoming an MP, Mayhew was the director of outdoor adventure company Go Ape – “I've done it several hundred times” – which he said gave him “hard-developed views about economic opportunity and business growth”.

Describing the government’s approach as “damaging”, he cited the decrease in business confidence since the election and the supermarket Sainsbury’s announcement that it will cut 3,000 jobs due. Mayhew claimed that many of the business leaders who backed Labour in the general election were now having “buyer’s regret”.

In addition to the problems faced by businesses, Mayhew lamented that the government’s approach to taxation and employment was leading to thousands of non-doms, millionaires and billionaires leaving the UK.

“You could say ‘good riddance’, but by that, you're saying ‘good riddance’ to all the tax they pay, all the people they employ, all the businesses they support and invest in,” he said.

“It's a monumental act of self-harm driven by an ideological dislike of people who have been successful, and that's really wrong.”

However, he added that these billionaires and millionaires should use their wealth to be “philanthropic” and “have a sense of responsibility for their fellow man”.

“That, in the past, has probably been missing, but it's something which, as a social conservative, I fundamentally believe in.”

The Conservative MP would not detail any specific policy proposals, as his party is planning to launch policy commissions which will be led by the shadow cabinet.

Despite having originally backed Mel Stride in the Tory leadership race, Mayhew was keen to show his support for new leader Kemi Badenoch and her decision to resist unveiling policies too early in the electoral cycle.

“It's exactly the right thing to do… to have a knee-jerk reaction to a very significant loss of faith from the public in the conservative message would be a really bad mistake,” he said.

“We need to go back to basics, as Kemi Badenoch is asking us to do, and focus and agree on the values of conservatism around which you can then build a coherent set of policies.

“It is never a good idea to reveal your hand to the government years before a general election, because they'll then seek to undermine it.”

Mayhew held onto his seat Broadland and Fakenham by a slim 719 votes – having first won it with a hefty majority of 21,861 in 2019. With Labour, Reform UK, and the Lib Dems all having significant support in his constituency, Mayhew explained he wanted to prioritise winning back voters who did not turn out at all.

“I'm very keen to work to recover the support from those people, as well as understand why people have supported and continue to support Reform and to reflect their views more effectively and bring them back into the Conservative fold,” he said.

He was dismissive of the Lib Dems, who he said had seen support falter in his seat at the last election: “Locally, they say what people want to hear.”

Mayhew said that while he did not have a “crystal ball”, he was “absolutely convinced” his party will be effective in opposition with Badenoch as leader.

“I think that you'll be very surprised come the next election, how radical that policy platform is likely to be,” he said. “It's exciting.”

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