Union members are "fed up" with being used as "political pawns" West Dorset MP Chris Loder has said.

He was speaking as MPs debated the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill, which will give the government the power to unilaterally assert levels of service provision from striking workers in certain sectors.

He told the Commons: "I warmly welcome this Bill. It's an important piece of legislation.

"Those of us who are and have been sensible and constructive members of trade unions know that we can still take strike action without closing down the whole network or shutting down an entire operation.

"This whole debate is about balancing the right to strike with the right of our citizens to have access to key services when they need them, the right of citizens to get to work, the right of citizens, of children, to get to school, the right of small business owners to still continue their business.

"The union members who feel pressured to strike, union members who believe that eight days' strike in quick succession is too much, those union members who believe that having six days to respond to a ballot referendum instead of the standard 14, those hard-working union members also want this tempered and they want their needs and their rights recognised as well, rather than the ideological ones of trade unions.

"Because they are fed up. Union members are fed up of being used as political pawns."

During the debate Business Secretary Grant Shapps said life would be made "harder for every single family" in the country if the Government agreed to "inflation-busting" pay demands.

It is up to unions to ensure public safety and not put lives at risk, Mr Shapps said.

"It is not the case that the strikes are in all cases perfectly safe for our own constituents. That's why we must act and unions must take reasonable steps to ensure the members do not participate in strikes if they'd been named on a work notice.

"It's up to unions to ensure public safety and not put lives at risk. Only if they fail to do so could they face civil action in court.

"The Government, unions and employers and workers have a role to play in ensuring essential services continue even during strikes, and that is what we are ensuring. This approach is balanced, it's reasonable and, above all, it is fair."

He reiterated "this legislation does not seek to ban the right to strike", adding: "The Government will always defend the principle that workers should be able to withdraw their labour.

"In fact, the only time that the right to strike was removed from emergency services was from a liberal prime minister Lloyd George, as part of the Police Act 1919. We do not propose to follow the Lib Dems' example."

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: "The sacking nurses Bill is one of the most indefensible and foolish pieces of legislation to come before this House in modern times.

"It threatens teachers and nurses with the sack during a recruitment and retention crisis. It mounts an outright assault on the fundamental freedom of working people while doing nothing ... to actually resolve the crisis at hand."

She also told MPs: "This smokescreen about allegedly needing these minimum service levels - when we know, because, last autumn his own Government assessed that minimum service levels weren't needed in emergency services due to existing regulations and voluntary arrangements.

"We all want minimum standards, and safety and service and staffing levels, and we want it every day, but it's the minister that's failing to provide them."

She added: "With this Bill they are burning freedoms for which we've fought for centuries and handing to ministers unprecedented power over individuals that it targets. It's not just wrong in principle, but it's unworkable in practice.

"A Government that is out of ideas, out of time, and fast running out of sticking plasters. A Government that is playing politics with nurses' lives because they can't stomach negotiation. A Government desperately doing all it can to distract from the economic emergency it has caused."

The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill cleared its first Commons test as MPs gave it a second reading by 309 votes to 249, majority 60.