Christopher Rainger said he was ‘looking forward to enjoying a Portillo moment’ on election night (Letters, May 24).

So true. As the Minister for Public Transport Portillo said, regarding the York Carriageworks privatisation, that new terms can only be subject to renegotiation and NOT unilateral abrogation on the part of management.

Yet the Tories stood by and did nothing when management did exactly what Portillo and his Tories promised would not happen.

This resulted in hundreds of York Carriageworkers being robbed of pensions, redundancy money and rail passes. This has cost me £25,000 plus loss of 29 years of free entitled travel.

BR workers have free passes for life after 12 years. I had 25 years service in. I had been in the Railway Pension Scheme 25 years, only to see it frozen. Every York Carriageworks family suffered.

I realise nothing can be done about redundancy and pension monies but Labour’s Luke Charters and all the other new Labour MPs can do something Julian Sturdy never did - restore our rightful rail passes.

William Moore, Lochrin Place, York

 

Left wing Labour lurking in wings

The media and the so-called political specialists are tipping Sir Keir Starmer to take occupancy of 10 Downing Street.

Have any of them told him not to pack a suitcase as a weekend bag will suffice?

Because Labour’s left wing will oust him before he can hang his suits in the wardrobes.

TJ Ryder, Acomb, York