Pay freeze casts doubt on election pledge to teachers

Manifesto promise may fall victim to Sunak’s plan to cap public sector pay

BORIS JOHNSON’S election pledge to raise newly qualified teachers’ pay to £30,000 appeared in doubt last night as Rishi Sunak prepared to usher in “pay restraint ” across the public sector.

The £6,000 hike was a central plank of the Conservative Party’s election manif esto, with Mr Johnson promising to make teaching one of the “most competitive” jobs in the graduate labour market.

However, Downing Street yesterday refused to say whether the commitment, which represents a 25 per cent rise and is supposed to be fulfilled by 2022, would still be met after the Chancellor sets out the one-year spending review next week.

Ministers previously said the rises would have to be funded from planned increases to school budgets over the next three years.

The Office for National Statistics yesterday confirmed that public sector debt hit £2.08 trillion in October, with Government borrowing in the first seven months rising to an estimated £215 billion.

Government spending as a share of GDP has risen from 40 to 60 per cent of GDP in 2020, the highest since the Second World War, analysis by the Resolution Foundation think tank found.

Mr Sunak said the figures showed that “over time it’s right we ensure the public finances are put on a sustainable path”, with the Chancellor expected to announce a one-year freeze or cap.

Teachers, police officers, soldiers and civil servants are expected to be included, although NHS workers could be exempted in recognition of their pandemic efforts.

It prompted a backlash from trade union leaders, as Mark Serwotka, the Public and Commercial Services union general secretary, warned “industrial action cannot be ruled out”.

Frances O’grady, the TUC, general secretary, added: “A pay freeze would be a bitter pill for care workers, refuse collectors, emergency workers and all the key workers in the public sector who helped keep the country going through this pandemic.”

While the freeze or cap is expected to last for one year, there are fears that the scale of the public finances’ black hole will require restraint throughout this parliament.

The Centre f or Policy Studies think tank estimated that a three-year freeze could save the Exchequer up to £23 billion, falling to £11.7 billion if Mr Sunak opted for a 1 per cent pay cap, and £ 7.7 billion if healthcare workers were excluded.

Torsten Bell, the Resolution Foundation chief executive, said it was “difficult” to see how the Government could maintain the commitment to increasing qualified teachers’ salaries to £30,000.

Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the NAHT, said: “The teaching profession has already endured a decade of pay freezes, in contrast to pay growth in the private sector. The Government’s plans will make a dire situation even worse.”

Yesterday, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said there would be “no return to austerity” but refused to rule out a public sector pay freeze.