Triple-turning Theresa may now set to give pay rise
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Reports began to flourish last night that Theresa May has ‘secretly agreed’ to perform a triple-u turn and give struggling nurses and firefighters a pay rise after all.
Theresa May secretly agreed to perform a triple-u turn and give struggling nurses and firefighters a pay rise after all, it was claimed last night. If reports are true, it would mark the third about face on the public sector pay cap in a single day. And comes after cheers erupted from the Conservatives when the pay rise cap was initially down voted.
A Conservative spokesperson said on Wednesday that Mrs May had “heard the message” of the election and would listen to “pay review” which had initially branded the cap as unsustainable.
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But pressed for more detail later that day, the Prime Minister’s official spokesperson walked back the idea, saying repeatedly, “Our policy has not changed”.
It comes amid claims of a bitter split between the Prime Minister and Chancellor Philip Hammond over the cap, seemingly confirming the amount of background issues this freshly formed government and it’s already weakened Prime Minister is already facing.
Scraps to the cap would potentially be a huge victory for Labour and Jeremy Corbyn, who made ditching the cap a centerpiece manifesto pledge.
Public sector workers such as nurses and firefighters had their pay frozen for two years thanks to Tory austerity in 2010. Rises have then been capped at 1% a year since 2012. And given the recent slew of terror attacks that hospitals in London have had to deal with and the Grenfell Tower block tragedy, in which firefighters from all across the capital spent over two and half days battling the raging inferno, a new light has now been shone on just how hard working and how lightly paid these sectors are in comparison to others in the UK.
But on Wednesday afternoon, the Sun reported, 20 senior Tory MPs “marched on Number 10” demanding action on the pay cap.
Secret meetings with the MPs, who reportedly included former Tory chairman Grant Shapps , the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Gavin Barwell said struggling public service workers would get a decent pay rise.
Mr Barwell also reportedly told the MPs that Mrs May agreed there needed to make “big changes of style and tone.”
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Speaking on BBC Question Time last night, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox also said the government “will look at the pay review bodies” for public sector workers.
But Mr Fox also said the country still needed to “live within its means.”
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