Watch: Man dressed as a rat shames Labour over Birmingham bins crisis
A man has appeared at a council meeting dressed as a rat to shame Labour over the bin strike crisis engulfing Birmingham.
The streets of England's second city have been plagued with rats amid growing mountains of uncollected waste after hundreds of Unite members walked out in a row with the Labour-run council.
Appearing at a council meeting on Tuesday, the unidentified man asked officials when they planned to collect the rubbish, while he was dressed as a rat.
'Given reports of 21,000 tonnes of rubbish on our street, by what date does the council think it will have reduced the backlog, reduced the rat population and return our streets to an acceptable state?' he asked Majid Mahmood, cabinet member for the environment.
Responding, Mr Mahmood said he sympathised with residents and praised police for making sure trucks could leave their depots 'unhindered'.
The industrial action gripping Birmingham is causing misery for locals, with more than 17,000 tons of household waste piling up in the streets.
Labour-run Birmingham city council has been forced to declare a major incident after residents claimed some neighbourhoods were being plagued by rats 'as big as small cats'.
Earlier, Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, attacked Unite and warned the strikes had got 'way out of hand'.
The minister urged Unite – one of Labour's biggest donors – to quit its 'unacceptable' tactics and allow the streets to be cleaned for the sake of the long-suffering residents.
Asked about the crisis on Tuesday, Mr Streeting told Times Radio: 'I certainly am concerned about the public health situation, and the poor conditions we're seeing for people in Birmingham as the bin bags are piling up.
'We see rats and other vermin crawling around. That's not good for public health. I think this dispute has escalated way out of hand.'
He added: 'It is totally unacceptable that Unite, the trade union, has been blocking bin lorries from leaving the depot.
'I understand industrial disputes happen. I understand people have the right to withdraw their labour. That's part and parcel of industrial relations in our country. But what is not acceptable is allowing these sorts of unsanitary conditions to occur on people's streets.
'So I'm urging Unite to do the right thing, stop blocking the bin lorries, and allow people to get out there and clean the streets for the people of Birmingham who've suffered for far too long.'
Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, was forced to intervene in the crisis last week after Sharon Graham, the Unite boss, accused her of standing by while the chaos unfolded.
She has since been urged by the Tories to hand back £10,000 she has been given by the union.
Ayoub Khan, the independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, has suggested the Army could be drafted in to 'assist the local charities and organisations' cleaning up the city.
He told the Commons: 'Given what this Government has said, that they will do all that they can to bring this strike to an end, would the Deputy Prime Minister confirm that they will force the council to make that payment and deploy the army to assist the local charities and organisations that are helping themselves in clearing? They need the extra support.'
Jim McMahon, the local government minister, replied: 'He does very well to go from zero to one hundred pretty quickly on that issue.'
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