RMT members have helped to “rekindle the fire of trade unionism in Britain,” Mick Lynch said today as he opened the transport union’s two-day young members’ conference in Hastings.

The general secretary told a packed room of more than 50 members at East Sussex College that the union faces the “fight of its life” in a long-running national rail dispute over jobs, pay and conditions.

But, whatever the outcome, RMT is already winning as it has put “bigger ideas back on the table,” including calls for wealth redistribution and renationalisation of key industries, Mr Lynch said.