Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has backed the strike by Birmingham refuse workers.

He said they were taking action against austerity, not the Labour-run city council.

And he said the council should resume talks “to resolve this dispute immediately.”

Mr McDonnell was speaking at a rally in Brighton where trade union body the TUC is holding its annual congress.

He also referred to claims that senior council managers had blocked a plan drawn up by council leader John Clancy which might have ended the bin strike - and urged councillors to make their own decisions.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell

Mr McDonnell said: “I do not see your strike as strike against Labour. I see your strike as a strike against austerity. Simple as that.

“Our advice to Labour councillors wherever, when they go into dispute, is to get round the table.

“And insist on the fact that it isn’t chief executives or officers of the council that determine the future of a council’s policies, but the councillors themselves.

“So we want negotiations to resolve this dispute immediately.

“Solidarity!”

Birmingham’s bin strike is back on after an apparent deal between the city council and trade union Unite fell through.

Binmen are now walking out three times a day, at 7am, 10.30am and 1pm, and Unite said it would re-ballot its members, meaning industrial action could extend until 2018.

The strike had appeared to come to an end in August after Coun Clancy held talks with Unite. He says no firm agreement was reached, but Unite say they were told the council would axe plans to make 113 refuse worker roles redundant.

Piles of rubbish and black bin bags strewn over the street on the corner of Cannon Hill Road and Edgbaston Road near to the cricket ground.

Action resumed after the council sent out redundancy notices after all, on Thursday August 31. Stella Manzie, the council’s chief executive, told council cabinet members that failing to proceed with the redundancies would leave the authority vulnerable to legal challenges from other staff who believed they were underpaid.

Mr McDonnell also told the rally that Labour would support a strike over public sector pay both “in Parliament” and “on the picket lines”, following reports that the Government may lift the public sector pay cap but only for some workers.