Sunak condemns the repetition of the figure for the cost of public sector salary demands | strike

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Rishi Sunak was found guilty of using “disingenuous” figures after he repeated his claim that meeting union demands for public sector salary bonuses would cost each family an extra £1,000 a year.

Speaking at an RAF base in Lincolnshire, where he was meeting service personnel who will be deployed to replace striking staff, including ambulance crews and border staff, the prime minister said he would not give way despite a slew of planned stops.

“What I’m not going to do is ask ordinary families across the country to pay an extra £1,000 a year to meet the wage demands of union bosses,” Sunak said. “It wouldn’t be right and it wouldn’t be fair.”

The £1,000 figure, which has been used by several ministers in recent days, is based on a government estimate that meeting the 11% increase in salaries for all public sector employees would cost a total of £28 billion, spread across 28 million British households.

However, the calculation has been called into question, given that not every part of the public sector is astounding, and awards recommended by wage review bodies and accepted by ministers average around 5% anyway.

Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “These disingenuous figures show how desperate the government is to blame the country for its deadlock. The only reason families pay more in taxes is because Tory ministers have wrecked the economy.

“On the steps of Downing Street, Rishi Sunak has promised his government will be one of integrity and accountability. Instead, he appears to be using Boris Johnson’s playbook and Les Truss’ calculator.”

Sunak remains committed to the possibility of extending anti-strike legislation to prevent strikes by emergency services workers such as nurses, and passing a law that would mandate minimum levels of service for the country’s infrastructure such as the railway network, limiting the ability to strike. .

“I will not go into details now, we are looking at all options,” Sunak said. “But what I can say is that my priority is always to be reasonable – and that’s what we’ll continue to do – but also to make sure we protect lives and minimize disruption to people’s lives.”

Downing Street passed questions about the account on to the Treasury, which was contacted for details.

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No. 10 refused to set a date for working on new anti-strike laws. Sunak’s deputy spokesman said on Friday that Downing Street was confident the minimum service level law would be effective, despite skepticism raised by the rail industry and transport policy figures.

Thousands of Royal Mail workers who are members of the Telecommunications Workers union marched outside parliament on Friday during a strike to protest wages and conditions.

Also scheduled to strike in the coming days are nurses, paramedics, railway workers and Border Force officials.

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