Union leaders have been accused of deliberately damaging Britain's economy by ordering the longest rail strike for almost 50 years.

Up to 300,000 commuters will find their daily journeys thrown into chaos for the next five days due to industrial action by the RMT.

Ministers criticised the strike - which will take place on the say-so of just 303 people - as doing “devastating” harm to passengers, communities and businesses.

The strike – which will affect Southern Rail trains in London, Kent, East and West Sussex, Hampshire and Surrey – is the first such action since the government introduced supposedly tough new union laws.