The RMT is stepping up its campaign opposing outsourcing, after Transport for London awarded a five-year cleaning contract to Mitie earlier this month. The contract covers the cleaning of trains and Underground stations, bus stations, TfL offices and the London Transport Museum, and the union is planning to stage a demonstration outside City Hall in protest.

At least 42 people are now known to have died in Sunday night’s collision between two Spanish high speed trains, and investigators are focusing on the possibility that a fault in a rail joint could have been to blame. Rescuers have been continuing to search the wreckage for more casualties.