Sturgeon to scrap pay cap of one per cent

NICOLA STURGEON will scrap the one per cent cap on publicsector pay rises when she sets out her legislative plans for the coming year, it is understood.

The First Minister will announce the measure when she reveals her 2017/18 programme for government on Tuesday, according to reports. The SNP had committed to lifting the pay cap for public-sector workers earlier this year, describing it as “increasingly unsustainable”.

A Scottish Government source told the “The Programme for Government will make clear that the time has come to ditch the one per cent pay cap for the public sector.

“The cap will go from next year and future pay policy will take account of the cost of living.

“We need to ensure that future pay rises are affordable, but we also need to reflect the circumstances people are facing, and recognise the contribution made by workers across the public sector.”

Scottish Labour described the move as a “U-turn” after the party’s bid to scrap the cap for NHS nurses was defeated at Holyrood in May.

Interim leader Alex Rowley MSP said: “This SNP U-turn is long overdue -– and it is welcome to see that (Finance Secretary) Derek Mackay has finally followed Labour’s lead to end the pay cap.

“The SNP voted down a Labour motion to end the pay cap for our hard-working nurses earlier this year.

“This SNP’s change of heart should be followed by a commitment to go further.”

In June an attempt by the UK Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn to reverse the long-running freeze was voted down by Conservative and Democratic Unionist MPs. ROTHERHAM MP Sarah Champion has warned that the “floppy left” is afraid of speaking out on issues such as sex grooming gangs for fear of being branded racist.

The former Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary was forced to quit her frontbench role last month after a backlash for saying: “Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls”. The Labour MP used an interview with to highlight differences in attitudes between the capital and Labour’s Northern heartlands.

After her resignation Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – an MP in Islington, north London – said his party would not “blame” or “demonise any particular group”.

Ms Champion told “If I’m on the floppy left, to be accused of racism is probably the worst thing you can call me.

“That fear will motivate me to step away from a lot of topics I’d maybe tackle head-on if I didn’t have that phobia.”

Her constituency was the scene of a grooming scandal and she said that many Labour members and politicians based in London had “never been challenged by a reality that’s different” from their largely “tolerant, multicultural world”.

“London is not representative of the UK and it’s definitely not representative of the North of England in relation to race,” she said.

“Rotherham and many post-industrial towns are still segregated.”

Ms Champion stressed: “It’s not that Yorkshire is racist, it’s that Yorkshire is very blunt and doesn’t sugar-coat anything.

“In Rotherham, people’s frustration is that if they all knew what was going on, why didn’t the people who were meant to protect them do anything about it?”

Ms Champion’s comments about “British Pakistani men” came in a column in last month, leading to her resignation and an apology.