Health minister refuses to commit to public sector pay rise, saying PM must make ‘tough decisions’

A health minister has refused to commit to accepting the recommendations of public sector pay review bodies (PRBs) for next year, saying the government has to “look overall at what is affordable”.

Speaking to Sky News, Helen Whately said she would not “pre-empt” the next steps in the process, as the prime minister “needs to be responsible with the public finances” and “look at things in the round”.

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The PRBs take evidence from across sectors like the NHS and education each year, as well as submissions from government, before saying what wage rises should be introduced for the following 12 months.

Amid anger from unions about the figures failing to match inflation last year, Health Secretary Steve Barclay insisted it was right for ministers to “continue to defer to that process to ensure decisions balance the needs of staff and the wider economy”.

The PRBs’ recommendations are expected to be published next month, alongside formal pay offers, with reports claiming they could be around 6% for the health service and 6.5% for teachers.

But reports over the weekend suggested Rishi Sunak could block such rises over concerns they could increase already record high inflation.

‘Tough decisions’

Asked by Kay Burley if the government would accept the PRBs’ recommendations, social care minister Ms Whately said: “I’m not going to pre-empt the next stage in the process.

“Obviously government has to look overall at what is affordable. And the prime minister has been very clear… about the need to be responsible with the public finances as the number one priority, of course, must be bring down inflation.

“So government has to look at things in the round.”

She added: “We take the advice of recommendations from the pay bodies. But you’ve got to understand that government has to be responsible for the public finances.

“That’s why I can’t say here and now what the outcome of the whole process is going to be. We know we have a number one priority of bringing down inflation.

“And actually the job in government and job of the prime minister is to make tough decisions.”

Government pay position offers Labour opportunity and challenge

Tamara Cohen

Political correspondent

@tamcohen

The government’s wavering position on NHS pay presents Labour with both an opportunity and a challenge.

On the plus side, they can point to the fact the position of ministers seems at odds with what they were saying back in December.

Then, the government argument went that it was not for them to decide how much nurses, teachers, or police officers should be paid because this is determined by independent pay review bodies.

Now, they are suggesting the opposite – with health minister Helen Whately the latest to refuse to commit to following recommendations if the government judges they are not affordable.

Labour’s Emily Thornberry was withering in her interview with Sky News this morning: “I mean, seriously – do they really have a policy at all?”

Highlighting government inconsistency on political issues of this sort is exactly what you would expect an opposition party to do.

But it’s not entirely straightforward for Labour. They know there are questions that follow which could be challenging for the party.

Would they commit, for example, to following all pay review body recommendations in power?

Around half of public sector workers are covered by them (civil servants are not), but they are not binding, although Conservative governments have ignored their recommendations more than Labour did in power.

And given Labour agrees with the government that inflation needs to come down, and agrees with the Bank of England that interest rates needed to rise – how comfortable will they be supporting potentially inflationary public sector pay hikes?

Labour’s shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, blamed the “chaos” of the economy on the government and attacked its position on public sector pay.

She told Sky News: “It was only a few months ago that they said that they couldn’t possibly pay out any more than the pay review. Now today, they seem to be saying that they’re going to override the pay review bodies.

“I mean, this is just economic policy by press release, isn’t it?“

She added: “We have still got nurses on strike, we have still got doctors on strike. We’ve got teachers that have been saying they want to talk to the government for I don’t know how long.

“And now we have the government vacillating between ‘are we going to pay attention to the pay review body’ or ‘aren’t we going to pay attention to the pay review body?’ I mean, it’s not any way to run a country.”