Mayor of London Boris Johnson has openly supported the biggest shake-up in the rules on industrial action, after backing a new Conservative bill.

The Trade Union Bill began its journey into law by being presented to the Commons on Wednesday (September 9).

The bill would ban workers in key public sectors from striking unless industrial action is supported by at least 40% of all those eligible to vote.

The move means that any worker who abstains in a strike vote or forgets to return their ballot paper will effectively be deemed to be opposing the move.

Mayor and Uxbridge & South Ruislip MP Mr Johnson said the bill is “totally the right way forward for the country”.

He added: “I'm very grateful that the Government is at last moving on this as this is something we've been lobbying for in TfL for many years now.

“The [current] ballot thresholds are too low, they're absurd!

“You're having teeny numbers of people voting for paralysing strikes so you've got to do something.”

Mr Johnson is confident that everybody in Parliament will “see the sense of this”.

He added: “There's some cities around the world where mass-transit workers can't go on strike at all – it's legally prevented.

“This is a moderate approach that will protest working people in the trades unions, many of whom don't want to go on strike, and the travelling public.”