SAME OLD CAP FROM THE PM
May defiant on public pay rise
THERESA May refused to budge on the 1% public sector pay cap yesterday after cruelly building hopes that she would scrap it.
The Prime Minister shrugged off warnings of an NHS staffing crisis and growing calls from MPs – including her own – for a decent rise.
Jeremy Corbyn said the Government was “recklessly exploiting the goodwill” of public sector staff.
Accusing the PM of “flip-flopping and floundering” over the pay cap, he added: “She simply doesn’t get it.”
Senior ministers including Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt and Sir Michael Fallon have signalled their sympathy with the workers’ plight.
But in a victory for Chancellor Philip Hammond, the PM echoed his reviled predecessor, George Osborne, as she said her party inherited the “biggest deficit” in peacetime history and we must “live within our needs”. Mrs May said recommendations from pay review bodies for teachers, police, prison wardens and senior civil servants would be considered.
But she added: “Our policy on public sector pay has always recog- nised we need to be fair to public sector workers, to protect jobs in the public sector and to be fair to those who pay for it. That is the balance we need to strike.”
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said earlier there were splits among senior ministers. But ex-Chancellor Kenneth Clarke said removing the cap would be “an economic disaster”.
Meanwhile, Mrs May claimed Labour’s policies would cause a Greece-style meltdown. She said in Prime Minister’s Questions: “Let me remind (you) what happens when you don’t deal with the deficit. In Greece, what did we see? Spending on the health service cut by 36%.”
No 10 sources later insisted Mr Corbyn’s economic plans do pose “a very real threat” of Britain ending up like Greece. But a senior Labour source said: “It’s preposterous.”