Rishi Sunak is scrambling to respond to large-scale industrial action threatening to grind the country to a halt. The sheer number of professions taking strike action this month, and the chaos it will create, led Education Secretary Gillian Keegan to endorse widening the list of workers banned from striking. Both the police and military are currently banned, with Keegan suggesting NHS staff and others in “critical infrastructure” roles could join them. This comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed he was working on “tough laws” to protect people from strike disruption, even though legislation could not come into force until next year.