LABOUR Party frontbenchers risk losing their jobs if they support striking rail workers on picket lines in defiance of orders from party leader Sir Keir Starmer, it was revealed yesterday.

The party’s response to the strikes threatens to cause a split in the shadow cabinet.  

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer emailed his team before Tuesday’s strike, ordering them not to join picket lines during the biggest rail strike in 30 years.

Frontbenchers who do will face punishment, Labour chief whip Sir Alan Campbell has confirmed.

Some frontbenchers have defied the orders and joined other Labour MPs on the picket lines and members of the shadow cabinet are unhappy with the way the strikes have been handled by the party, iNews has reported.

“Privately, most of us are spitting blood,” one shadow minister told the newspaper.

“There are going to be some very robust discussions with our shadow secretary of state this afternoon.”

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner has publicly announced her support for the strikes, saying the workers had been left with “no choice.”

The Conservatives and the Labour Party have argued over the strikes in Commons.

Cabinet ministers have accused Labour of siding with workers who have disrupted rail services, while Labour has condemned the government for inaction in preventing the strikes.

A poll of 2,300 people by Savanta ComRes found that more than 58 per cent of adults believe the strikes are justified.

But a poll by YouGov said fewer than four in 10 people supported the industrial action.