At yesterdays Tory cabinet reshuffle Patrick Mcloughlin was appointed as the new transport secretary. Mcloughlin, MP for the Derbyshire Dales constituency has been a Conservative MP since 1986 The website 'theyworkforyou.com' lists him as voting 'strongly against equal gay rights,' 'very strongly for the Iraq war' and 'moderately against a transparent Parliament' among other things.

The previous incumbent of the post of Secretary for Transport was Justine Greening. Strongly against any expansion of Heathrow airport, Greenings removal from the post came at a time when more and more tory MPs are signalling support for the airport to be expanded.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said: “This is business as usual as far as RMT is concerned. We can expect Patrick McLoughlin to pursue the same cuts and privatisation agenda mapped out in the Government’s McNulty Rail Review . RMT promise him an all-out political and industrial fight to stop job losses, fare increases, ticket office closures and profiteering."

The new Transport Secretary will also have the toxic West Coast franchise shambles dumped straight on his desk and there’s plenty of mileage left in that fight as we expose the bankrupt shambles of rail privatisation foisted on the British people by an earlier Tory Government.”