RAIL workers have “got this government on the run”, Mick Cash told the RMT AGM today.

Delivering his annual report, the union’s general secretary vowed to “leave no-one behind.”

He said the RMT had made huge progress in pushing the case for rail nationalisation up the agenda, noting the sea change in Labour policy.

The importance of this should not be underestimated, he said, because “it’s bums on seats in the Palace of Westminster that matter.”

He stormed: “They voted for privatisation and they can vote for renationalisation.

“It’s not a question of if there’s going to be nationalisation, it’s a question of when there’s going to be nationalisation.

“We’ve got this government on the run,” he said, adding: “We’ve certainly got the chicken Grayling on the run,” in reference to the Transport Secretary.

Mr Cash said that, while the RMT was “growing” and “getting stronger,” “it is difficult out there” due to continued attacks on jobs and conditions.

But he said the union was “getting to grips with that race to the bottom in terms of workers’ rights.”

At the same meeting, International Transport Workers Federation general secretary Steve Cotton said: “Everything we see in every single sector of transportation is all about subcontracting and deprofessionalising your work.

“Technology is going to challenge every facet of the transport world.

“We recognise it isn’t just as simple as responding to technology itself.

“It goes back to our fundamentals. It goes back to how powerful is our union and what can it influence.”