Industrial action is likely to affect pre-Christmas trading and hospitality in the UK, with a series of transport strikes planned in the run-up to December 25.

Four days of action on the railways across the UK will take place by members of the RMT union – two 48-hour shutdowns – the dates announced last week as December 13-14 and December 16-17. The further disruption will no doubt come as a blow to traders, with the second strike coinciding with the last full shopping weekend before Christmas.

A number of bus strikes have also been planned for London starting on December 1 and continuing until December 17, services operated by Metroline and Abellio affected by a total of nine days of action. Both disputes are predominantly over current pay offers with inflation in the UK standing at just over 11 per cent; the disputes also centre around potential redundancies, and working terms and conditions.

The action is a blow to the hospitality sector which was looking forward to its first uninterrupted festive season since 2019, the Covid pandemic hitting early in 2020.

“Continued rail strikes have had a huge impact on our hospitality sector: preventing staff from making it into work and disrupting consumers’ plans meaning a huge drop in sales for venues across the sector,” said Kate Nicholls, Chief Executive of UKHospitality.

However, the UK’s Secretary of State for Transport, Mark Harper, remains hopeful that the fresh rail strikes can be averted, and the dispute can be resolved before Christmas. He said: “I think there is a realism in this process from both the trade unions and employers and I hope we can resolve the dispute as fast as we can before Christmas.”

Further 48-hour rail strikes are also planned for the new year, with industrial action taking place on January 3-4 and 6-7.