Train drivers' union slams Flynn’s failure on Palestine occupation profiteers

Britain / 29 October 2026 Farage says Reform UK members can support Tommy Robinson after harassment conviction 29 October 2026 Justice System / 29 October 2026 Russel Brand mouths words to wife during character statement 29 October 2026 Workers’ Rights / 29 October 2026 ‘No further delay’ on 50% thresholds as new union powers come into force 29 October 2026 Big Tech / 29 October 2026 Social media age checks effective but not foolproof, Ofcom warns 29 October 2026 Healthcare / 29 October 2026 Thousands of patients unable to access GPs online after collapse of tech firm 29 October 2026 Britain / 29 October 2026 Poundland on the brink of collapse with 12,000 jobs at risk 29 October 2026 TRAIN drivers’ union Aslef have slammed transport secretary Stephen Flynn’s failure to exclude a firm operating in Israel’s illegal settlements from bidding to build new ScotRail trains.

The announcement of the shortlist to build ScotRail’s new suburban train fleet caused uproar from the STUC, RMT and Aslef last month after the inclusion of Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles S.A (CAF), which operates the Jerusalem Light Rail system and actively expands it into illegal settlements.

Unions called on the firm to be excluded, with a threat members would refuse to drive trains built by a company on the UN database of businesses connected to illegal settlements.

Writing to Aslef Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay however, Mr Flynn claimed being on a “UN database on its own is not likely to be sufficient grounds to exclude that company” and insisted it was for Scottish Rail Holdings — owned by the Scottish government — to make any decision.

Hitting back in a fresh letter, Mr Lindsay accused Mr Flynn of “tenuously hiding behind a process you imply you have no control over, when ultimately you have the final say.”

He wrote: “Tragically and disappointingly you have confirmed that you are still prepared to give Scottish public money to a company profiting from the misery and oppression of the Palestinian people.”

Branding the Scottish government’s recent BDS motion “a lump of essentially meaningless words,” he continued: “You have given an impression to the rest of the world that as a country we talk a good game — sometimes we even call for things — but ultimately we do not deliver.

“You had a chance to show that Scotland really does stand beside the Palestinian people and utterly failed to do so.”