DEVOLVED Scottish and Welsh ministers could play a crucial role in blocking the implementation of the Tory government’s widely condemned anti-strikes Bill, Fire Brigades Union leader Matt Wrack said today.

In a letter to SNP First Minister Humza Yousaf and his Welsh Labour counterpart Mark Drakeford, Mr Wrack urged both administrations to convene summits with unions to plan a “united campaign of resistance against the authoritarian legislation.”

The call comes after the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill, which could empower bosses and even ministers to sack workers who refuse to cross their own picket lines, suffered a string of defeats in the House of Lords earlier this week.

The setbacks included an amendment from the ex-Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Roger Thomas which, if adopted by MPs when the legislation returns to the Commons, would see the Bill only applied in England. 

Earlier this month, Mr Yousaf also pledged that Edinburgh would “never issue or enforce a single work notice” if the legislation becomes law.

Mr Wrack welcomed the move and urged Cardiff to make the same commitment, writing: “A strategy of non-co-operation and non-compliance could make the legislation inoperable.

“The Welsh government’s active resistance to this assault on the democratic rights of working people could be decisive in making the legislation inoperable.

“It would be an unprecedented attack on devolution for UK ministers to impose work notices in any disputes in devolved areas.” 

The Scottish and Welsh governments working “alongside unions, local government and some employers could raise the possibility of defeating this undemocratic legislation,” the general secretary said.

Mr Wrack has urged the TUC to lead a “mass movement of non-compliance” against the Bill.