Simon Browning
Business Reporter at Leeds Train Station

There’s no shortage of wheeled suitcases here at Leeds station today, as travellers make their Christmas getaway.

The station isn’t crowded and people are moving freely - at least, as best as they can, because many are laden with bags of wrapped presents, and I've spotted a few dogs too!

Some train operators have told me this morning that they saw their busiest days at the start of the week.

They believe people decided to travel earlier to avoid the Christmas Eve strike disruption.

I’ve watched people board services across the Pennines to Manchester Airport and Liverpool, and an LNER service down to London.

Trains are busy, but the ones I saw were not overcrowded. Operators are keen to point out at that trains are running tomorrow morning for those travelling last minute.

But as ever, the advice is to make sure you’ve checked the services running before you set off for the station. The last service from Edinburgh to London tomorrow is at 8am because of the strike.

Image source, PA Media

If you're just joining us or need a catch-up, here's the latest on the strikes happening across the UK:

• Thousands of travellers arriving in the UK have been told to expect delays as 1,000 Border Force staff begin eight days of strikes over pay, pensions and job security
• The head of the PCS union, which represents the striking workers, said staff could continue the industrial action for "many months into the new year" if there was no new pay offer
• However, travellers flying into Gatwick and Heathrow have described few disruptions and say that military personnel standing in for border staff are checking documents efficiently
• The AA has said traffic congestion is starting to worsen across UK motorways, and heavy rain has led to difficult conditions

• Trains will stop running at 15:00 on Christmas Eve and Network Rail says there will be "significantly reduced services" due to strike action
• Royal Mail staff are also striking today and tomorrow, meaning the delivery of last-minute parcels and cards could be affected
• The Royal College of Nursing says it will hold further strikes on 18 and 19 January if the government "fails to open NHS pay talks"
• The GMB union has called off a second day of ambulance strikes planned in England and Wales for 28 December to avoid "additional anxiety" for the public - and has instead announced a new walkout scheduled for 11 January

Strikes by Menzies ground handlers at Heathrow Airport have been called off after workers accepted a new pay offer.

Staff staged 72 hours of strike action last month. Further planned strike action has now been called off after workers accepted the offer.

The workers will receive a 9.5% increase, backdated to May 2022, and then a further 1% from January 2023.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “This is an excellent result for our members at Menzies. By taking a stand and acting in unity they have achieved a dramatically improved pay increase."

Image source, PA Media

Workers on London's Elizabeth Line have become the latest to announce strike action for the new year, with staff set to walk out on 12 January in a dispute over pay and pensions.

The Prospect union, whose members work in safety and maintenance on the line, is warning of "significant disruption to the line, and potentially the cancellation of all services" during the strike.

“Our members have worked incredibly hard to get the Elizabeth Line ready to go safely into operation yet are being treated significantly worse than equivalent workers on the rest of London’s network. They have been left with no option but to take this action," says general secretary Mike Clancy., external

The announcement of the strike, from Prospect and the TSSA rail union, comes as passengers face disruption to train services across the country in the run-up to Christmas.

Image source, PA Media

Traffic is starting to build across UK motorways, with drivers travelling before Christmas hitting several pockets of congestion, the AA says.

AA RoadWatch is reporting major problems across the west and north of the M25 and severe congestion on the M1 around Luton in both directions, as well as on the M20 near Maidstone, the M3 near Basingstoke, the M4/M5 near Bristol, the M5 north of Birmingham, the M60 west of Manchester and the M8 near Glasgow.

Edmund King, AA president, says: “After a slow start the traffic nightmare before Christmas is getting worse."

He says rail strikes has added to congestion because more people are opting to drive, and heavy rain has also led to difficult conditions, causing more breakdowns.

He says today and tomorrow will be the busiest on the roads, with about 17 million trips each day.

Earlier, we heard from general secretary of the PCS union - which represents Border Force staff striking today - who said said travellers could face months of disruption unless the government comes forward with an improved pay offer.

Mark Serwotka said the union can continue the industrial action "for many, many months into the new year", adding the PCS has built up a "substantial strike fund" for future walk outs.

Striking Border Force staff don't seem to have been put off by the pouring rain in places like Cardiff and Gatwick this morning, according to pictures posted on the PCS union's Twitter account.

In Glasgow, striking staff have even brought a Christmas elf mascot with them to the picket line.

Tomos Morgan
BBC News in Cardiff

On a wet and windy December day, there’s another strike here in South Wales - and public support does seem to be there as people drive past the picket line, even though some opinion polls suggested there was less support for Border Force strike action.

Around 38 of the 41 Border Force staff at Cardiff airport are on strike today, all part of the PCS union.

But unlike in England, there will be no military help at Wales’ international airport today.

Instead, staff from Pembroke dock ferry terminal, Plymouth airport and Bristol airport will cover the staff that voted for industrial action, with the military stepping into fill gaps in England.

This wider civil service dispute could come to affect a number of different parts of daily life, with museum staff re-balloting soon and DVLA staff in Swansea already ready for action in the new year.

Have your travel plans been disrupted by strike action? Or have you changed your holiday plans because of the strikes?

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Frances Read
Reporting from Victoria Coach Station

There’s a steady flow of people here at Victoria Coach station.

While it pours with rain outside, passengers departing from London huddle into the main departures entrance, lugging their suitcases behind them.

Others arrive here in the centre of the capital to spend Christmas here, or take a connecting journey onto one of the UK’s main busy airports.

Yea Jin Lee, 25, is a student at the University of Southampton. She’s meeting family from South Korea in London.

“I took a bus from Southampton to London as there’s very few trains. Normally I would take the train but I heard there are many train strikes… so I decided on the coach."

She’s not the only one who has opted for coach instead of the train, during the Christmas period, to avoid any impact of strikes.

Deepak Kataria, 23, and Zainab Qaiser, 32 , travelled to London from Nottingham. They’re on their way to catch flights out of Heathrow to India and Pakistan.

“We took the coach because of the possibility of the strikes, it’s been a difficult journey… we didn’t want to take the risk [of the train] because we have flights to catch. At least with the coaches we know they will drop us off in time, even if it’s inconvenient with all this luggage.”

A lot of people have decided not to travel at all this Christmas, but for those who have to, or still want to, coaches are part the solution for those trying to avoid the strike action in the coming days.

We've got firmer details on the disruption on the railways tomorrow from Network Rail.

It says there will be "significantly reduced services across the rail network on Christmas Eve" due to strike action.

Trains will finish at around 15:00 GMT, with last trains on long-distance routes departing much earlier. It adds there will be no trains in some places.

Examples of some of the last train times on major routes include the 9:45 from Leeds to London, the 11:22 from London to Edinburgh, and the 12:48 from London to Manchester.

"Only travel if absolutely necessary on Saturday 24 December," Network Rail advises, external.

The news from this morning is that nurses in England will strike over pay for a further two days in January.

But how much do you know about what they get paid? The BBC's health reporter Laura Foster, external tests your knowledge in this video quiz.

Image source, EPA

We've got some more details on the new strike dates for nurses in January for you now. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says the strikes will take place on the 18 and 19 January if the government "fails to open NHS pay talks".

“The Government had the opportunity to end this dispute before Christmas but instead they have chosen to push nursing staff out into the cold again in January," RCN general secretary and chief executive Pat Cullen says in a statement.

"I do not wish to prolong this dispute but the prime minister has left us with no choice," she says.

“The voice of nursing will not be ignored. Staff shortages and low pay make patient care unsafe – the sooner ministers come to the negotiating table, the sooner this can be resolved. I will not dig in, if they don’t dig in.”

The RCN says the strike action will take place across 55 trusts. It says 44 trusts took part in the action across the two strikes this month.

RCN members in Wales and Northern Ireland will not be striking in January, it adds. Nurses in Scotland voted earlier this week to reject a revised NHS pay offer from the Scottish government, and are planning to strike in the new year.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said this morning that he was "really sad" about the disruption strikes were causing to people's lives, and urged travellers to "check before you make your journeys so you know what's happening".

Asked about the variety of strikes disrupting the UK, the prime minister said the government had acted "fairly and reasonably" in accepting the recommendations of independent pay review bodies.

Border Force workers have been offered a 2% pay rise by the Home Office. Earlier, the general secretary of the PCS union - which represents Border Force staff striking today - said his members "don't have an independent pay review body". They have requested a 10% pay rise.

Sunak also said that getting public sector pay right was "difficult" but that the government must be "responsible" in setting it, in order to reduce inflation.

Ministers have said big pay rises could fuel inflation - but there are arguments to say that's not happening at the moment, and the government often reminds us that current inflation is largely a result of global factors, such as the emergence from Covid and the war in Ukraine.

The GMB union has called off a second day of ambulance strikes in England and Wales that was scheduled for next week, and has instead announced a further day of strike action on 11 January.

Up to 10,000 members were expected to walk out on 28 December, but the union said it was cancelling the strike so that "the public will be able to enjoy Christmas without additional anxiety".

The extra day of strike action on 11 January means GMB workers will again be striking on the same day as ambulance workers represented by Unison.

Unison said yesterday it had planned two more days of strikes on 11 and 23 January in London, Yorkshire, the North West, North East and South West.

Rachel Harrison, GMB National Secretary said: "The incredible British public are why we are suspending our action over the Christmas period.

"But, it also means the government can now do what ambulance workers and the public want - get round the table and talk pay now. We are here 24/7. Any time, any place."

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has announced more strike dates in January, after accusing the government of failing to open NHS pay talks.

New strike dates are scheduled for the 18 and 19 January, the RCN says.

They will take place at more locations in England than in the previous strikes, it adds.

Travellers flying into Gatwick and Heathrow this morning have described few disruptions to their journeys despite the Border Force staff strikes.

On Twitter, Amy Kardel, who flew from Berlin to Heathrow and then to the US, says, external she was warned by a pilot that there "may be delays in the airport due to industrial action" - but that there were no queues in sight.

Another passenger, Lucy, says, external she has "never seen efficiency" like it at the border.

The Border Force strikes at Gatwick also appear to have caused minimal impact.

A woman who flew from Madrid to Gatwick reports few queues and a quicker than usual service.

Hope Bolger
Reporting from Gatwick Airport

Standing in arrivals at Gatwick airport, it feels more like Love Actually than a Nightmare Before Christmas. Tree lights twinkling, people waiting excitedly to see their loved ones walk round the corner, big hugs and kisses when they appear.

Raquel just flew in from Barcelona to see her boyfriend Dean, who lives in London, and they're delighted to be spending Christmas and New Year together.

So far today, things are running smoothly and the impact of the strikes isn’t being felt here. But as more flights land and more passengers come through, the impact of the action could be more widely felt.

Image source, Getty Images

With millions set to hit the road ahead of Christmas Day, the AA has issued an amber traffic warning for Friday and Saturday.

The motoring group says traffic is expected to build between 10:00 GMT and 18:00 on Friday, while the main congestion on Saturday could be felt between 10:00 and 16:00.

Major routes linked to the M25 are due to carry most of the strain.

The AA says rail strikes have contributed to the number of people planning on driving.

“The rail strikes have convinced more people to travel by car this year, and while hundreds of miles of roadworks have been removed to ease the pain, it might not be enough to keep the queues away,” head of roads policy Jack Cousens says in a statement, external.

The congestion on roads, as well as the rail and bus strikes, could also affect those travelling to airports for their Christmas getaways.

Today's strike by Border Force staff - including passport control workers - is likely to affect passengers flying into UK airports, rather than those flying abroad.

Theo Leggett
BBC International Business Correspondent, reporting from Gatwick Airport

There have been plenty of people arriving here at Gatwick this morning, but so far there is no sign of delays at passport control.

"Very smooth," one passenger told me. "Much quicker than I expected," said another.

This is expected to be a busy day at London’s second airport, and it’s possible queues could build up later.

But the real test will come next week, when people who have been away for Christmas start flocking home.

That’s when the contingency plans that have been put in place will be under the greatest strain.

We’re told 30 December is when the flow of passengers will be highest - and the risk of disruption greatest.