Slapped down, Bank chief who said: Don’t ask for a pay rise
THE Governor of the Bank of England was blasted last night after he urged workers not to ask for a big pay rise.
Andrew Bailey was slapped down by Downing Street over his controversial suggestion to tame the soaring cost of living while trade union leaders branded it a ‘sick joke’.
The fierce backlash came after Mr Bailey claimed that wage growth must be curbed to stop inflation rising still further, after the Bank predicted it would reach 7.25 per cent in April and hiked interest rates in response.
Mr Bailey, whose pay packet came to £575,538 last year, told the BBC: ‘We are looking, I think, to see quite clear restraint in the bargaining process because otherwise it will get out of control. It’s not at the moment but it will do.
‘I’m not saying nobody gets a pay rise, don’t get me wrong, but I think what I’m saying is we do need to see restraint in pay bargaining, otherwise it will get out of control.’ In a clear rebuke to this comments, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said yesterday: ‘It’s not something that the Prime Minister is calling for. We want a high-growth economy and we want people’s wages to increase.’
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘Workers don’t need lectures from the Governor of the Bank of England on exercising pay restraint. Why is it every time there is a crisis, rich men ask ordinary people to pay for it?’
And Gary Smith, GMB general secretary, branded the Governor’s comments on pay a ‘sick joke’, adding: ‘The nerve of Mr Bailey is scarcely credible.
‘Telling the hard-working people who carried this country through the pandemic they don’t deserve a pay rise is outrageous.’