RAIL union RMT has angrily dismissed an SNP call to defer industrial action in Scotland until after the Cop26 environment summit as “bare-faced cheek.”

As Scotrail workers stood on picket lines today in existing disputes over parity, a statement by the party’s five back-bench Glasgow MSPs heaped praise on rail staff — but called on the union to shelve plans for a fresh ballot for action over pay.

The five — Bob Doris, James Dornan, Bill Kidd, John Mason and Kaukab Stewart — drew fury from the union by describing plans for a strike vote in the run-up to the summit as “an unhelpful way for the union’s London bosses to go about kick-starting those negotiations.”

Pointing out that the SNP already has responsibility for running the Scotrail franchise, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch expressed incredulity at the party’s MSPs demanding that the union call off disputes that they have done nothing to resolve.

Mr Lynch said: “Having sat on their backsides for over six months while Scotrail staff have been fighting for basic pay justice and equality, it is sheer bare-faced cheek for the SNP to suddenly issue disgraceful statements demanding that our members call off their disputes.

“It is deeply cynical for the Establishment political elite in Scotland to use the Cop26 as a battering ram to try and hammer down our members’ pay.

“We know that rail jobs are green jobs and it’s about time the SNP started recognising that fact and supporting Scotland’s rail staff accordingly.

“I have repeatedly called for a summit with Nicola Sturgeon to resolve the collapse in industrial relations on Scotland’s railways that has developed on her watch and would call on the First Minister to stop attacking her rail staff and take up that offer immediately.”