Tory MP Jake Berry has said the government should be negotiating with trade unions to resolve their pay dispute amid planned rail strikes.

“By training I’m a lawyer and I can tell you that the only way out of a dispute is via negotiation,” he told Times Radio.

“I call on all parties including the government to get around the table because it’s going to have a huge negative impact on people’s lives.”

The Tube is facing a walkout this week, as well as other Transport for London services.

Here is a look at how the capital’s transport network is expected to be affected:

Union leaders are seeking urgent talks over the future of railway ticket offices amid rumours of mass closures.

The Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) said a newspaper report of plans to close every ticket office in England from September was “explosive”.

The union, which is balloting hundreds of its members for industrial action over pay and jobs, warned that closing ticket offices would increase the likelihood of strikes.

The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) said no decision had been taken on ticket offices

The biggest national rail shutdown for three decades is now inevitable as talks have failed and it is too late to roster crews to cover services, our travel correspondent Simon Calder reports.

It is going to be first felt at a station in western Scotland on Monday evening.

Full story:

During the planned nationwide rail strikes for three dates in late June, only 22 per cent of passenger train services will run – most of them on key links to and from London.

Our travel correspondent, Simon Calder, has put together a useful list:

Grant Shapps has dismissed growing calls for the government to get involved in talks over rail strikes as a “stunt”, amid growing tensions over the biggest industrial action on the network in decades.

Ashley Cowburn, our political correspondent, reports on the transport secretary’s comments this morning:

Mick Lynch, the RMT boss, said his union did not want to be the “cause of disruption” for people.

“But we are facing a crisis for our members,” he told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday as he explained what lies at the centre of the dispute.

“We’re faced with thousands of job cuts, despite what Grant Shapps says. There has been no guarantee these redundancies won’t be compulsory,” he said.

“We’ve seen four or five thousand jobs already go from the railway. They’ve told our maintenance staff on Network Rail that 3,000 jobs will go.”

The union boss said: “They are going to cut back on the safety regime. They’ve told us that every single booking office in Britain will close. They’ve told us they are going to extend the working week from 35 hours to 40 - or possibly 44.

“And for new entrants, that will mean lower wages. So they are actually proposing pay cuts, not a pay rise, and an increase in working time on the railway.”

The transport secretary has been asked why he has not met with the RMT union - which has called the strikes - since the middle of May.

Grant Shapps said negotiations needed to take place with the employers. “Those are the people who have the power to settle this,” he said.

Grant Shapps also told Sky News the government wanted “modernisation” on the railways in return for pay.

Presenter Sophy Ridge asked him if that was “code” for job cuts.

Here is his reply:

Grant Shapps has warned the RMT union that this week’s rail strikes will be “disastrous” for the industry.

The travel secretary accused union boss Mick Lynch of “gunning” for industrial action that will inconvenience millions of people through the country.

“It is a huge mistake. The unions have been gunning for this strike throughout. This strike is completely unnecessary,” he told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme.

“It is going to inconvenience millions of people - students doing their GCSEs and A-levels, people trying to get to hospitals to try get operations that have been postponed, perhaps, during coronavirus.

“It is disastrous. It is no way to behave on the railway. There is no advantage to this. I know Mick Lynch says he is ‘nostalgic for union power’ but this is no way to behave.”