The Shadow Business Secretary highlights that the average pay settlement in the private sector was 7 per cent.
There has been a small fall in support for the Government’s approach to the strikes amongst our panel.
By holding firm, the Government should make clear to striking teachers it is not only their own time they are wasting but that of a generation of pupils who have already lost too much.
“That is why if we want to halve inflation, if we want to get growth going and reduce debt, we need to make sure that the public finances are stabilised.”
By the time the Government’s legislation is enacted, inflation may well be coming down, and a suitable wage settlement might be a viable prospect. However right this policy is, it might prolong a dispute that could fade of its own accord.
We have been looking at how we can strengthen our laws to provide the police with the clarity they need to stop serious disruption and will come forward with those plans in the coming weeks.
The Shadow Health Secretary has been asked by Tominey to prove his party isn’t “a lot of soundbite and no substance”.
His plan for 2024 is to say: “I may not be most exciting politician in the world. But I’m the more reliable of the two before you. What I promise I then deliver.” It’s unlikely to be enough on its own.
He is challenged on the claim that public sector pay demands would cost up to £1000 per household if met.
The unions were small-c conservatives. They paraded under heraldic banners, had no truck with such new-fangled ideas as women’s rights, and wanted to keep every coal mine in the country open.
Any relaxation of wage restraint would be a blatant surrender to the anti-growth coalition.
The Shadow Health Secretary was asked by Laura Kuenssberg whether he would pay striking nurses more.
Setting a minimum level for service across key public services is not only reasonable and proportionate, but safe. And it is the first duty of any government to keep citizens safe from harm.