No 10 defends claim public sector pay demands would cost £28bn and refuses to rule out crackdown – UK politics live

No 10 defends contentious claim public sector pay demands would cost £28bn – but drops suggestion this would all be ‘extra’

At the No 10 lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson also defended the government’s claim that meeting public sector union pay demands in full would cost £28bn – although he dropped the claim that this could cost every family in the UK an “extra” £1,000 on top of what is already planned.

Rishi Sunak used the figure on Friday, saying that ordinary families would have to pay “an extra £1,000 a year” if the government gave into unions’ public sector pay demands. That figure is based on the £28bn cost being shared equally among all households in the UK. Other ministers have used the figures, but without always describing them as “extra” to what has already been planned.

As this BBC Reality Check analysis explains, there are various objections to the £28bn and £1,000 per family figures, of which one of the main ones is that they do not make allowance for the fact that the government has already committed to giving public sector workers pay rises worth around 3% on average.

Asked to defend the figure, the PM’s spokesperson said £28bn was the estimated cost of giving all public sector pay workers an 11% pay rise in 2023-24. But he conceded that this was a figure that would include the sums already allocated for public sector pay rises. He said:

We are not talking about giving two different pay rises. It would depend on what the overarching average of the pay rise was. If it was 11%, it would be £28bn.

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There will be two urgent questions in the Commons later. At 3.30pm Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, will ask about government preparation for the NHS strikes. And that will be followed by a UQ about British Council contractors in Afghanistan, tabled by the Conservative John Baron.

Ambulance services face ‘serious disruption’ during strike, even though military will be helping, No 10 says

And here are some more lines from the Downing Street lobby briefing.

We are not seeking to impose government over and above either the independent pay review process or ongoing discussions between employers and the unions. We won’t be changing the process.

  • The spokesperson confirmed that Steve Barclay, the health secretary, is not willing to hold fresh talks with the Royal College of Nursing about pay.

  • The spokesperson said that, even though armed forces personnel will be helping out when ambulance staff go on strike, that would not prevent “serious disruption” to the service. The spokesperson signalled that the soldiers would focus on logistical task, so that those ambulance staff who are working will be free to focus on patients. Talking about what the military would do, he said:

We recognise their skill-sets will be different but they can help alleviate pressures to free up paramedics and other people with the necessary skills so they can carry on treating patients and get where they need to be …

Clearly we are not suggesting that there won’t be serious disruption caused by strikes. These individuals are going to be extremely helpful in mitigating some of that disruption, but nonetheless, it will have an impact.

The spokesperson also confirmed that members of the armed forces would step in when Border Force staff went on strike. But he would not say how many armed forces personnel would be involved, arguing that the “full scale” of the strike action was not yet known.

Dan Sabbagh

Dan Sabbagh

Six hundred military personnel from all three armed forces will start training to drive ambulances to cover for striking NHS workers later this month. A further 150 are being readied to act as logistical support, defence sources said, with training for both groups to start “shortly”.

The figure is slightly higher than indications given by Downing Street overnight, where it was implied that around 400 members of the armed forces would prepare to take on the work in the run-up to Christmas. Military will be engaged in “non-clincial support,” it is understood.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “The MoD has accepted a request from Department of Health and Social Care under the Military Aid to Civil Authorities process.”

Military aid can be authorised when “there is a definite need to act,” other options have been discounted and the civil authority does not have an alternative way of coping.

No 10 defends contentious claim public sector pay demands would cost £28bn – but drops suggestion this would all be ‘extra’

At the No 10 lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson also defended the government’s claim that meeting public sector union pay demands in full would cost £28bn – although he dropped the claim that this could cost every family in the UK an “extra” £1,000 on top of what is already planned.

Rishi Sunak used the figure on Friday, saying that ordinary families would have to pay “an extra £1,000 a year” if the government gave into unions’ public sector pay demands. That figure is based on the £28bn cost being shared equally among all households in the UK. Other ministers have used the figures, but without always describing them as “extra” to what has already been planned.

As this BBC Reality Check analysis explains, there are various objections to the £28bn and £1,000 per family figures, of which one of the main ones is that they do not make allowance for the fact that the government has already committed to giving public sector workers pay rises worth around 3% on average.

Asked to defend the figure, the PM’s spokesperson said £28bn was the estimated cost of giving all public sector pay workers an 11% pay rise in 2023-24. But he conceded that this was a figure that would include the sums already allocated for public sector pay rises. He said:

We are not talking about giving two different pay rises. It would depend on what the overarching average of the pay rise was. If it was 11%, it would be £28bn.

Here is a Guardian graphic showing what strikes are taking place when this month.

No 10 says talk of unions coordinating strikes ‘concerning’ and does not rule out clampdown on this with new law

At the lobby briefing this morning No 10 said it was “concerning” that unions across different sectors seem to be coordinating strike action, and would not rule out including measures to address this in the forthcoming anti-union legislation.

Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, recently said the unions were engaged in “real industrial coordination across our employers, across our sectors, across our industries” and this is a matter of increasing concern to Tory MPs. On the Westminster Hour last night Damian Green, the former first secretary of state, said that the unions were trying to organise “a quasi-general strike” and that this was something that “needs to be resisted by everyone who cares about democracy”.

Asked if Rishi Sunak shared this concern, the PM’s spokesperson told journalists:

It is concerning to hear talk of coordinated actions. It only seeks to exacerbate the misery it inflicts upon the public. But that is fundamentally a decision for unions.

We think we are acting reasonably in accepting the recommendations of the independent pay bodies.

Sunak has already said he is planning “tough” new legislation to guarantee minimum public services continue during strikes. Asked if this could include measures to stop unions coordinating their strikes, the spokesperson said he would not get into speculation about what the new powers might entail.

I will post more from the briefing shortly.

Health staff in Northern Ireland stage 24-hour strike

Health workers from three of Northern Ireland’s largest unions have begun a 24-strike in an escalation of their ongoing protest at pay and conditions, PA Media reports. PA says:

Members from Unison, Nipsa and GMB have taken to picket lines at hospitals and other health service facilities across the region.

Later this week, nurses will strike in Northern Ireland as part of the UK-wide action by the Royal College of Nursing on Thursday.

Last week, Stormont’s Department of Health announced that healthcare workers in the region would receive a pay rise recommended by independent salary review bodies.

Unions said the increase was not enough and insisted the strike action would continue.

The delayed pay rise move came after civil servants secured the legislative authority to make decisions on pay amid Stormont’s political impasse.

Decisions on other public sector employees, such as teachers, civil servants and police, are awaited.

The majority of health workers are to receive at least an additional £1,400 in pay while doctors and dentists will be given a 4.5% rise.

The increases will come into effect before the end of the financial year and be backdated to 1 April this year.

The separate independent recommendations were made by the NHS pay review body and review body on doctors’ and dentists’ remuneration.

The announcement was always unlikely to have affected the industrial action planned by health workers, as NHS colleagues in Great Britain have voted to strike having already received the 2022/23 rises.

The lack of a devolved executive at Stormont had prevented the awards being made in Northern Ireland before the UK government intervened last month to pass a budget for Stormont and hand civil servants extra powers.

Unison members on a picket line outside the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, where they are on strike today.
Unison members on a picket line outside the Royal Victoria hospital in Belfast, where they are on strike today. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA

‘In capitals, in bold … tattooing it on my forehead’ – Starmer stresses his total opposition to doing deal with SNP

This is what Keir Starmer said in his LBC phone-in when he was asked if he would do a deal with the SNP if that was necessary to form a government after the election. He said:

We are not doing a deal with the SNP. I say that in capitals, I say it in bold, I said it at my party conference, I’ve said it many times before and since.

When asked if he would stick to that position even if it meant the Tories being able to continue in office, he replied:

We are not borrowing seats from the SNP and getting over the line. No deal.

The SNP will have to make their minds up. If they want to bring down an incoming Labour government, and prop up a Tory government, then that’s their choice, and that’s what they will have to sell back in Scotland. Good luck with that one.

But this is fundamental to me. Running through the SNP is their mission to break up the United Kingdom and for Scotland to become independent. I fundamentally disagree. I believe in our union of nations, not just because of what we’ve achieved historically together, but because of what we will achieve in the future. And if I look at the big challenges of our time, whether it’s Ukraine and security, whether it’s a pandemic whether it’s how we grow our economy, the climate crisis, these are issues which will be better met as a union of four nations going forward together.

So absolutely no deal with the SNP.

I know what’s going to happen as we get towards the election. There will be lots of graphs saying this number of seats, that number of seats. That’s why I’m saying up front, tattooing it my forehead, no to deal with the SNP. We are not going to do it.

There is nothing new about this position, but rarely has Starmer expressed his opposition to a deal with the SNP so bluntly.

Keir Starmer doing his LBC phone-in.
Keir Starmer doing his LBC phone-in. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

My colleague Archie Bland has a good analysis of some of the claims made about the current round of strikes in his First Edition briefing this morning.

Here is an extract from what he says about claims that the pay demands are unaffordable (see 9.23am) or inflationary (see 10.19am.)

One way to get at the question of affordability is to examine the government’s claims of the cost to taxpayers. Rishi Sunak claims that it would cost about £1,000 extra per household to give pay rises offsetting 10% inflation this year. But Ben Zaranko of the Institute for Fiscal Studies points out in this BBC Reality Check piece that once you factor in the 3% average pay rises for public sector workers already budgeted for 2022-23, the real “extra” cost is around £640 per household, about a third of which would be returned in tax.

The question of whether a bit over £400 per household is affordable – with the greatest burden falling on the richest – is ultimately a political judgment. We can also ask whether it is true, as is often claimed, that pay rises will stoke inflation. This piece by Richard Partington yesterday argues that fears a “wage-price spiral” is under way are overplayed. The Bank of England estimates holding overall wage growth to 2.5% could reduce inflation by 1.5 percentage points – “a drop in the ocean” compared to the impact of soaring energy prices.

RCN likely to pause strike action if government opens ‘realistic, honest talks’ on pay, says nurses’ leader

In her interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Pat Cullen, the RCN general secretary, also restated a version of her offer, first made in the Observer, to pause this week’s strike in return for the opening of genuine talks with ministers on pay. She said:

If [Steve Barclay, the health secretary] gets round a table with us and has realistic, honest talks, there’s a strong possibility that I will be able to go back to my council and say: ‘I recommend that we avert the strikes and continue those negotiations’. And I would also say the council would most certainly not be unreasonable about that.

Asked if she was prepared to consider an offer that is lower than the money that the RCN has asked for, she said:

It would not be for me to negotiate on the airwaves, I’m definitely not going to do that. That’s for myself and the health secretary, or through conciliation with Acas to get around a table, but we will not be found wanting in getting in there and having those discussions.

source: theguardian.com