RMT must help defeat Reform at the next general election, the union’s general secretary Eddie Dempsey said in his keynote AGM speech today.

The former GWR train driver pointed out that Reform deputy leader Richard Tice had called for striking railway workers to be sacked during RMT’s national dispute.

In an Express article in 2022, Mr Tice wrote: “The time has come to cut out the cancer of union extremism that for too long has cast a shadow over this part of Britain’s infrastructure.”

Mr Dempsey explained to delegates: “It’s extremely important for us to stop Reform. Reform have said they regard our trade union as a cancer.

“They have said that 40-odd thousand of us should have been sacked and fired immediately during the national strikes.”

Reflecting on the union’s support for Andy Burnham when he stood in the Makerfield by-election, he said: “The shame of it all is that this government, for millions of people, has not delivered.

“And while we have had some changes to employment law that we benefit from, and while we have had the creation of GBR that we look forward to, most people in the country today feel like their lives are out of their control.

“Communities are not secure. There’s no secure housing. There’s no secure jobs. There’s no dignity. There’s no strength in lots of workplaces.

“Everything’s privatised or outsourced. And the things that we were able to unite around once … were ripped out of communities right across Britain.

“As a result, it’s opened the door for charlatans who want to come in and say they speak for us as a class.”

But Mr Dempsey called for industrial and political unity against the Reform threat adding: “Loyalty to each would mean victory to all.”