Rishi Sunak has been urged to “step up to the plate” by personally sitting down with union bosses to end the strikes.

TUC boss Paul Nowak has written to the prime minister demanding talks on how to find a solution to the industrial action crippling public services.

Nurses, railway workers and ambulance drivers are among those taking part in strike action throughout January in the ongoing disputes over pay and conditions.

Nowak said Sunak must “allow his ministers to get around the table with our unions reach a fair settlement on pay.”

He said striking workers “can’t afford another year of a real terms pay cut”.

“The reality is their mortgages are going up, their food bills are going up, their rents are going up – the only thing that isn’t going up is their wages,” he told Sky News.

“I think the government has got to take some responsibility now, step up to the plate, facilitate those talks and lets get a fair pay settlement for our NHS workers and public sector workers right across the piece.”

The TUC boss said Sunak had “forgotten some of those basic lessons” from the pandemic, when the TUC worked with him to develop the furlough scheme during lockdown.

He said: “I think he’s forgotten the value of sitting down and reaching an agreement and taking ideas from people outside his own cabinet.

“And frankly, I think it would be really good for Rishi Sunak to talk to our unions, but also to talk to some of those frontline parandemics, those physiotherapists, teachers in the classrooms, civil servants – people who for the last decade have been placed under real pressures on workload who feel they’re at breaking point.

“Let the prime minister talk to those workers and understand their concerns and their issues. I think that’s what any decent employer would do, and as someone responsible for the employment of millions of public sector workers, that’s exactly what the prime minister should do as well.”

Sunak will today set out his plans for the year ahead in a major speech in London.

The PM will unveil plans to make all pupils study some maths until they are 18, as well as explain how he plans to tackle the NHS crisis, illegal immigration and boost the economy.