Prime minister says meeting pay demands of unions ‘wouldn’t be fair and wouldn’t be right’
Rishi Sunak’s claim that families would have to pay an extra £1,000 in taxes if the government gave in to union public sector pay demands is based on its estimate that this would cost the Treasury an extra £28bn.
Previously ministers have argued that they have to resist the union pay demands because agreeing to them would be inflationary. But more recently they have been using the £28bn figure, and dismissing the demands as simply unaffordable. Presumably they think, or know, that people find this argument more convincing.
The public sector pay bill for all 5.7 million employees was around £233bn last year.
Inflation is expected to be about 10% this year, so you could assume that an inflationary pay rise would cost about £23bn.
The government is always going to try and act fairly and reasonably.
What I’m not going to do is ask ordinary families up and down the country to pay an extra £1,000 a year to meet the pay demands of the union bosses. That wouldn’t be right and it wouldn’t be fair.
We’re looking at everything right now at pace but my priority is going to be to protect lives and to minimise the disruption on people’s lives.
So the government is trying its best to act reasonably. That’s why we’ve accepted in full the recommendations of independent bodies who make recommendations to the government about pay settlements in the public sector, and often those pay settlements have been higher than what many people in the private sector are receiving, but the government accepted them in full to be reasonable, to be fair.
Prime minister says meeting pay demands of unions ‘wouldn’t be fair and wouldn’t be right’Rishi Sunak’s claim that families would have to pay an extra £1,000 in taxes if the government gave in to union public sector pay demands is based on its estimate that this would cost the Treasury an extra £28bn.Previously ministers have argued that they have to resist the union pay demands because agreeing to them would be inflationary. But more recently they have been using the £28bn figure, and dismissing the demands as simply unaffordable. Presumably they think, or know, that people find this argument more convincing.The public sector pay bill for all 5.7 million employees was around £233bn last year.Inflation is expected to be about 10% this year, so you could assume that an inflationary pay rise would cost about £23bn.The government is always going to try and act fairly and reasonably.What I’m not going to do is ask ordinary families up and down the country to pay an extra £1,000 a year to meet the pay demands of the union bosses. That wouldn’t be right and it wouldn’t be fair.We’re looking at everything right now at pace but my priority is going to be to protect lives and to minimise the disruption on people’s lives.So the government is trying its best to act reasonably. That’s why we’ve accepted in full the recommendations of independent bodies who make recommendations to the government about pay settlements in the public sector, and often those pay settlements have been higher than what many people in the private sector are receiving, but the government accepted them in full to be reasonable, to be fair. Continue reading…
