The claim
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said that “unbelievably the UK has lost more days due to strike action than France”. This is a claim the Labour Party has repeated on social media while promoting the party’s Employment Rights Bill, specifying that it relates to Rishi Sunak’s premiership.
Original publisher’s rating
Labour has compared the number of days lost to strikes in the UK between October 2022 and July 2024 with the average number of days lost in France between 2012 and 2022. No official French statistics have yet been released covering the period of Rishi Sunak’s tenure as Prime Minister, making a direct comparison impossible. For previous years where comparisons are available, French strike action outnumbers British action.
Reviewed by PA Media ↗ ·
Read the original fact check ↗Sources and attribution
- [original] PA Media original review
Original review · Retrieved October 16, 2026
Original review: PA Media. Structured data compiled by Data Commons under CC BY 4.0. Publisher article content is subject to its own terms.
Updated