PM Sunak seeks to end UK public sector strikes with pay raise offer

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak signed off on pay rises for millions of public sector workers in the UK, as he tries to draw a line under a months-long battle with labor unions.

Police pay will go up by 7 percent, teachers will get a 6.5 percent increase and doctors will see a 6 percent rise — in line with recommendations from Britain’s official public pay review bodies, Chief Secretary to the Treasury John Glen told the House of Commons on Thursday. He also announced pay awards for the armed forces and prison officers, and said there would be no new borrowing or spending to fund the extra pay.

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Sunak later held a press conference, saying the pay rises were non-negotiable. “There will be no more talks on pay,” he said. “We will not negotiate again on this year’s settlements, and no amount of strikes will change our decision.”

The decision to accept the proposals heads off one potential argument with labor unions, after ministers had repeatedly warned that the government wouldn’t necessarily do so as it prioritizes the fight against inflation. But the government’s refusal to increase borrowing or spending to fund the pay proposals means departments will have to find the money from existing budgets.

Glen announced more than £1.4 billion of extra funding for schools over two years, to come from the Department for Education’s existing budget — signaling other parts of education spending will have to be cut back.

Education unions welcomed the pay award, issuing a joint statement with Sunak and Education Secretary Gillian Keegan saying “this deal will allow teachers and school leaders to call off strike action and resume normal relations with government.”

But other unions may be angered by the failure to fully fund the pay awards, particularly in the health care sector where budgets are already stretched.

With a general election expected next year, polls show voters blame the ruling Conservatives for the erosion of public services on their watch, leaving the ruling party facing a double-digit deficit to the opposition Labour Party in most surveys. Sunak and Hunt are calculating that if they can get inflation down — it’s currently running at 8.7 percent — they can still try to campaign on their economic record.

Yet it is a major gamble, given the dire state of the UK’s public services. Pressed on the potential cuts to key services as a result of the wage increases — including the National Health Service and schools — Hunt said the UK faces a “very difficult time, but that the priority is to cut inflation.”

It is also far from clear that the extra pay for workers will end the current wave of industrial action, which is reaching levels last seen under former Tory premier Margaret Thatcher. The UK has already lost close to four million days due to strikes at a cost of £1.3 billion, according to data from the Office for National Statis-tics and the Centre for Business and Economics.

Tens of thousands of England’s junior doctors began a five-day strike on Thursday, plunging the National Health Service into the longest strike in its history at a time of record waiting lists. Cutting them is one of Sunak’s key priorities, but the prime minister argues that meeting the pay demands would hinder his biggest goal to reduce inflation.

Read more: Doctors walk out in UK health service’s biggest strike in history