Starmer’s new rail minister got engineer sacked for warning about station safety

Questions raised about Peter Hendy’s fitness for role after he threatened rail contractor with loss of contracts if Gareth Dennis not ‘dealt with’

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed that Keir Starmer’s new rail minister Peter Hendy demanded disciplinary action against an award-winning rail engineer for raising safety concerns about overcrowding at one of Britain’s busiest stations four months ago. The FOI exposes Hendy then repeatedly harrying the contractor, Systrans, until it sacked Gareth Dennis. Hendy, then Chair of Network Rail, said that it was ‘unacceptable’ for Dennis to say the station was unsafe – even though regulator the Office of Road and Rail (ORR) had recently said the same thing.

Hendy threatened to withhold public contracts from Systrans and told official to “deal with him”, after Dennis told a reporter from the Independent that Euston station in London was ‘unsafe’ because of the levels of overcrowding:

You’re talking about thousands of people squished into that space. It’s not just uncomfortable, it’s not just unpleasant, it’s unsafe.

Hendy, a Labour peer, who was promoted by Keir Starmer to the position of rail minister just after last month’s general election, repeatedly contacted officials demanding to know what was happening to Dennis and telling them to ‘deal with him’:

Please check whether we have … and or are currently employing him as we should stop. Accusing [Network Rail] of operating the station unsafely is unacceptable.

When he found out the engineer worked for SYSTRA, a Network Rail contractor, Hendy told his underlings to ‘write directly’ to the firm’s CEO with:

a request for disciplinary action as this is a serious and completely unproven allegation.

A week later, he chased his officials to demand:

How did we deal with him?

A few weeks later, on 14 May, Hendy sent SYSTRA a letter in which he threated the company that it might be passed over for future work if it didn’t discipline Dennis:

finding a potential supplier criticising a possible client reflects adversely on your likelihood of doing business with us or our supply chain.

The letter adds:

Employees here know that what they say in the media reflects on their employment, and I should like confirmation that your employees understand that too.

SYSTRA’s CEO initially responded by apologising “for any alarm this may have caused in your organisation after reading the article” and referencing the regulator’s report on safety at the station. Hendy replied he was not ‘convinced’ by Systra’s ‘unsatisfactory’ reaction and told the firm that unless it went further he would

take it up with your head office and shareholders.

Dennis, who won the 2024 Young Rail Professional Distinguished Service Award and has a young child, was suspended by Systrans and ultimately sacked on four weeks’ notice after refusing to sign a secrecy agreement in return for a larger pay-off.

Last September, regulator ORR had sent Network Rail an improvement notice about overcrowding at Euston, telling it to assess the risks and to take steps to mitigate them and telling it:

You have failed to implement, so far as reasonably practicable, effective measures to prevent risks to health and safety of passengers (and other persons at the station) during passenger surges and overcrowding events at London Euston Station.

As rail minister, Hendy now oversees the ORR. Network Rail told POLITICO that it had already addressed the regulator’s concerns about overcrowding. The Department for Transport declined to comment.

Hendy’s boss Keir Starmer has an appalling record of contempt for whistleblowers and failure to act to safeguard. As Skwawkbox revealed exclusively in 2020, Keir Starmer and Labour general secretary David Evans repeatedly ignored whistleblower Elaina Cohen’s ‘protected disclosures’ alleging that right-wing (then-)MP Khalid Mahmood’s staffer and alleged lover was abusing and exploiting Muslim women domestic violence victims through a now-defunct charity that she ran. Cohen was wrongfully sacked by Mahmood after making the disclosures – Mahmood remained on Starmer’s front bench until he chose to leave later over ‘political differences’.

Cohen, however, was sacked by Mahmood and won her employment tribunal case against him for wrongful dismissal, rejecting six-figure offers from Mahmood to drop the case and sign a secrecy agreement. During the case, one of the victims of the abuse gave sworn evidence that Mahmood and his lawyers did not contest. Mahmood confirmed to the tribunal that he had personally discussed the abuse allegations with Starmer.

Additionally, Starmer protected a number of alleged sex pests on his front bench and among senior party staff and offered no protection or support to Muslim woman MP Apsana Begum when she faced domestic abuse and a failed malicious prosecution by allies of her ex-husband who were trying to remove her as an MP.

Starmer’s supporters on Labour’s national executive also ignored their own barrister’s legal advice and reinstated a leading right-wing council leader, despite allegations of ‘serious’ sexual assault, so that he could become the party’s candidate, and ultimately MP, for Ilford South.

The revelations about Peter Hendy raise serious questions about his fitness for oversight of rail regulation and safety – but Keir Starmer’s record is likely to mean that he will not act unless forced to do so.

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