‘There is no alternative’: Treasury official tells unions he will fight against higher public sector pay rises even under threat of strikes

• Pay rises that averaged 5 per cent prompted calls for industrial action by unions
• Accusations they amount to real terms pay cut because of soaring cost of living 
• Chief Secretary to Treasury Simon Clarke said rises were ‘extremely generous’

Demands for higher public sector pay rises will be resisted even if it leads to strikes, trade unions were told yesterday.

Simon Clarke, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said the increases awarded to teachers, nurses and police officers this week were ‘extremely generous’, after accusations they amount to a real terms pay cut because of the soaring cost of living.

The pay rises that averaged 5 per cent prompted calls for industrial action by unions.

Demands for higher public sector pay rises will be resisted even if it leads to strikes, trade unions were told yesterday

Mr Clarke said wages had to be kept under control – and quoted Margaret Thatcher, who defeated Left-wing union barons, insisting: ‘There is no alternative.’

He told Times Radio the settlements were ‘by recent standards over the last 20 years extremely generous’.

Asked on Radio 4’s Today programme if the Government’s attitude was ‘this is it and if you have to face strikes, so be it’, he agreed: ‘That is absolutely correct.’ Sharon Graham, general secretary of union Unite, said: ‘It’s not workers’ wages driving inflation, it’s relentless corporate profiteering. It’s time we started talking about that.’

Simon Clarke, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said the increases awarded to teachers, nurses and police officers this week were ‘extremely generous’, after accusations they amount to a real terms pay cut because of the soaring cost of living

A senior Labour politician agreed with union demands that public sector workers receive pay rises that keep up with inflation.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: ‘The issue is with some public services they for 12 years now have had either no pay rise or a pay rise less than inflation, which means effectively a pay cut.

‘So for those public services that have had 12 years of ostensibly pay cuts, they deserve a pay rise at least (of) inflation.’

And in his last appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson mocked Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s dependence on donations from the major trade unions.

In his last appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson mocked Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s dependence on donations from the major trade unions

‘I can tell you why he does that funny wooden flapping gesture, because he’s got the union barons pulling his strings from beneath him. That’s the truth,’ Mr Johnson told the Commons.

Following the biggest rail strikes in 30 years last month, and ongoing disruption to criminal courts caused by barristers walking out, Britain’s ‘summer of discontent’ will continue today [thurs] with airline refuellers at Heathrow downing tools.

Passengers were also warned yesterday that a rail strike called by the RMT union will mean virtually no trains will run next Wednesday.

More than 100,000 Royal Mail workers have also voted to strike this summer, after a ballot by the Communication Workers Union.

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