This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

The London mayor, Boris Johnson, today joined the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in calling for stronger anti-strike laws as the capital struggled through a 24-hour tube strike.

Johnson, the chair of Transport for London, used his Telegraph column to urge David Cameron to "consider a law insisting on a minimum 50% participation in a strike ballot".

The Conservative mayor accused Labour of trying to manipulate industrial unrest for political purposes, and pursuing a "nightmarish return to the politics of the 1980s".

"The tragedy is that there is a growing number of people in the Labour party – perhaps even Ed Miliband – who believe that they can manipulate industrial unrest to wreak revenge for their electoral defeats," he wrote.

"They have an apocalyptic vision of the next two or three years, in which the public sector unions respond to the cuts with wave after wave of debilitating strikes."

His comments, in the run-up to his speech to the Conservative conference in Birmingham today, followed the call from the CBI – Britain's biggest employers' group – for the implementation of a rule requiring 40% of balloted members to be in favour of a strike.

The tube strike, over underground job cuts and safety fears, comes amid warnings of further industrial action in the months ahead as public sector unions gear up to fight the coalition government's planned spending cuts.

Johnson has been criticised for failing to meet union leaders after more than two years in office despite his manifesto promise to introduce a no-strike deal with tube unions.

During the mayoral election campaign, he vowed to end "chronic strikes" by securing a deal with unions in which they would agree, in principle, not to go on strike in exchange for independent arbitration in disputes about pay and conditions.

But talks with all four of the tube union leaders – several of whom the mayor has still not met – have yet to begin.

In March, he told the London assembly he was relying on legislation, rather than negotiation, to deliver his promise and was looking to a new government to introduce increased anti-strike laws to resolve disputes amid job cuts at TfL.

On Friday, Johnson incensed union leaders by describing today's tube strike as "a load of cobblers" and accusing them of politically-motivated manoeuvres against him and the coalition.

Union leaders have in turn accused the mayor of being more interested in "union-bashing" in front of his Tory colleagues at the conference than focusing on resolving the situation in the capital.

Under proposals put forward by the CBI, 40% of union members balloted would have to support a walkout before it could go ahead, and firms would be allowed to recruit agency staff to cover for striking workers.

"When a legitimate strike threatens to disrupt the services on which the public depends, it is only right that it should require a higher bar of support," John Cridland, the CBI deputy director general, said.

"That is why no strike should go ahead unless 40% of the balloted workforce has voted for it."

Current law allows a strike to take place if it is backed by a simple majority of those balloted. Cridland said only 33% of balloted members had supported today's tube action.

But the TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said the UK already had some of the world's toughest legal restrictions on the right to strike.

"The courts regularly strike down democratic ballots that clearly show majority support for action," Barber said.

"The CBI proposals are a fundamental attack on basic rights at work that are recognised in every human rights charter, and will be dismissed by any government with a commitment to civil liberties."

Tony Woodley, the joint general secretary of the Unite union, said: "Agency workers are already mistreated by employers and used to undercut wages. They need equal treatment, not employers further misusing them to prolong industrial disputes.

"The CBI's proposals are not designed to improve industrial relations, but instead to deny workers any voice in their working lives."

The transport secretary, Philip Hammond, used his speech to the Tory conference today to attack the striking tube unions.

Hammond told underground workers who he claimed thought themselves exempt from the changes he said were needed to drive down costs and increase efficiency: "Let me tell them straight – they are not. All our railways have to modernise."

He urged Miliband, the new Labour leader, to "come clean" on his position on the strikes.

"Just as Ed Miliband has failed to spell out how he would tackle our huge budget deficit, he is also failing to come clean on what he thinks about these hugely disruptive and pointless tube strikes," he added.

"Now he must answer two questions: does he condemn these pointless strikes that are causing disruption to Londoners, and will he encourage underground workers to cross picket lines and keep our capital city moving?"

A source close to Miliband said the Labour leader would not be commenting on the tube strike and did not want to get into a position in which he felt obliged to pass judgment on every industrial dispute.