Pay rise is their right

ROBBING Peter to pay Paul is indefensible when ill-judged Tory plans to extend local and performance awards are nothing more than a smokescreen for cuts in England’s North and Midlands, Wales and Scotland.

Every single nurse, teacher, firefighter, police officer, soldier, council worker, civil servant or any other public grafter you care to name is surely entitled to a decent day’s wage for a decent day’s work. Of course, staff in particularly expensive regions such as London and South East England should receive a boost covering the higher cost of living.

But that mustn’t be at the price of wages for workers elsewhere. After eight years of Tory austerity it is increasingly clear not only that austerity isn’t over but this Government holds workers in contempt. Britain deserves a pay rise, not the wage slashing of penny-pinching Chancellor Philip Hammond.