Trade union leader warns Sunak risks public ‘uproar’ over tax cuts ahead of election | tuc

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Britain’s biggest union has warned that Rishi Sunak will cause a public uproar if he prioritizes tax cuts before the election over better salaries for nurses, ambulance workers and teachers.

With the prime minister already under pressure from Tory MPs to sanction tax cuts in the spring budget, TUC general secretary Paul Novak warned the public would condemn any such move while a series of disputes over public sector pay remain unresolved.

“Politics is always about choices,” Nowak said. I fear there is a real danger that the prime minister, under pressure from his deputies, might be tempted by things like tax cuts. It would be a real mistake to offer tax cuts at a time when the NHS is experiencing such huge crises and elsewhere.

“I think there will be an uproar. To be honest, I think he needs to learn lessons from his party’s very recent history on tax subsidies, at a time when he already feels that the gap between shop pay and board members’ pay, would be a big mistake.”

Novak’s intervention comes at the end of a bruising week for Sunak as he angered some in his party by rejecting calls for tax cuts, being fined by police for failing to wear a seatbelt and reprimanded by the West Midlands mayor, Andy Street. Most of the senior Tories outside London, about the allocation of settlement funding.

Supporters of former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss are among those worried about Sunak’s caution on taxation, despite the economic damage caused by Truss’s failed attempts to push out huge tax cuts for the wealthy last year. There are also fears in government that Johnson may soon emerge to oppose any compromise on Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trade arrangements.

Meanwhile, billionaire Brexiteer Sir James Dyson last week called on the government to rethink “ever higher tax bills” for the private sector. While Sunak and his chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, resist calls for tax cuts ahead of next year’s election, Tory MPs expect it.

Rather than cutting taxes, Nowak said it was in the government’s gift to make the policy choices that would enable resolution of the long-running dispute with nurses, ambulance staff, teachers and other public sector workers.

“You can choose, if you like, to tax the oil and gas giants more,” he said. You can choose to raise capital gains tax. This government chose not to do so. In general, people are baffled by the choices of this government. he [Sunak] Still raising the bar for bankers’ bonuses at a time when we had record bonuses in the City of London last year. If you’re a paramedic, or a physical therapist, or you’re a teacher, or really a railroad worker or postal worker, you look at that and think: This government has its priorities wrong.”

Nowak accused Sunak and Hunt of ignoring his calls for a meeting to open wage talks, amid indications that even government departments are pointing to the Treasury as a stumbling block to any progress. A social media video from Hunt, in which the chancellor explained the risk of inflation by showing how coffee has become more expensive, was also criticized as “care”.

“The big question for me is: Why are Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt in hiding?” Nowak said. “Why are they not at the table? Jeremy Hunt pledged to a parliamentary select committee at the end of November that he would sit down with the TUC chairman. There has been no progress yet. number of requests.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s in health, education and the civil service. At the heart of it all is workers not getting a fair deal. The key to unlocking these rifts lies at the door of No 10 and No 11 and I don’t think you can avoid that. The chancellor and prime minister have to Come forward, stop hiding and come to the negotiating table.”

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Sarah Gorton, Unison’s head of health, said: “Jeremy Hunt knows the NHS better than anyone in Cabinet. As health secretary, his negotiations with unions led to the end of the 2015 strike pay deal. Like [health and social care] The committee chair chosen, he called for fair pay and acknowledged the damage done when the NHS trainee scholarship was abolished.

But as a consultant he chose to forget. Despite what he says, Jeremy Hunt knows that improving wages is critical to solving NHS staff emergencies.”

A government spokesperson said: “The government is doing everything it can to mitigate the impact of strikes but union bosses must be reasonable, stay around the table and call off damaging strikes. Pay must be affordable and fair which is why we have accepted recommendations from independent wage review bodies To pay the salaries of our esteemed public servants more.

“Inflation-matching wage increases for all public sector workers will cost everyone in the long run – exacerbating debt, fueling inflation, and costing each family an extra £1,000.”

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