Liz Truss has U-turned on her newest management coverage pitch to “wage war on Whitehall waste” after a Tory backlash over its affect on public sector pay.
On Monday night time, the international secretary mentioned she would save £8.8m by introducing regional pay boards as an alternative of nationwide ones to set salaries for civil servants, reflecting the place they lived.
But this is able to imply paying authorities staff in poorer components of the nation lower than their counterparts in additional prosperous areas, such because the South East and London.
And consultants warned to succeed in the sum, the plan must department out additional than authorities departments, with the likes of lecturers, nurses and law enforcement officials additionally dealing with decrease wages than staff within the South.
Politics Hub: Sunak allies assault Truss public sector pay plan
The coverage sparked outrage from plenty of Conservatives, with a lot of her management rival Rishi Sunak’s backers taking to social media to name it “crackers” and “austerity on steroids”.
The influential Tory Mayor of the Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, additionally informed reporters the coverage could be “a sure-fire way to lose the next general election”.
But by lunchtime at this time, Ms Truss’ workforce had launched a press release insisting “current levels of public sector pay will absolutely be maintained”, including: “Our hard-working frontline staff are the bed rock of society and there will be no proposal taken forward on regional pay boards for civil servants or public sector workers.”
They additionally claimed there had been a “wilful misrepresentation” of the coverage, however former Tory whip Mark Harper mentioned Team Truss ought to “stop blaming journalists” for reporting on the main points in her personal press launch.
‘Levelling down’
The authentic announcement from Ms Truss mentioned regional pay boards would “make it easier to adjust officials’ pay, ensuring it accurately reflects where they work” in addition to “stop the crowding out of local businesses that can not compete with public sector pay”.
She mentioned there was “too much bureaucracy and stale groupthink in Whitehall” and that if she received the race for Number 10, she would lead a authorities “that focuses relentlessly on delivering for the British public, and offers value to hard-working taxpayers”.
One of her backers, Brexit alternatives minister Jacob Rees-Mogg additionally lauded the plans throughout his look on Sky News this morning.
But the criticism got here thick and quick, with the final secretary of the PCS union, Mark Serwotka, saying Ms Truss “will face opposition every step of the way”, and common secretary of the Prospect union, Mike Clancy, calling it a “vacuous attempt to garner headlines friendly to her selectorate”.
Reams of Sunak supporting Tory MPs criticised the plan, together with Richard Holden, who mentioned the coverage would “kill levelling up”, and chair of the Northern Ireland Select Committee, Simon Hoare, who mentioned it was a “totally bad initiative” that might end in “levelling down”.
After the U-turn, Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves mentioned the “latest mess” from the Tory management marketing campaign “exposed exactly what Liz Truss thinks of public sector workers across Britain”.
She mentioned the episode “revealed her priority would be to slash the pay packets of working people”, including: “That would suck money out of local economies and send our communities backward.”
Liberal Democrat chief Sir Ed Davey mentioned: “U-turning on a multi-billion-pound policy five weeks before even taking office must be a new record.
“We cannot let Liz Truss run the nation with the identical incompetence she’s operating her management marketing campaign.”
Ms Truss appears to be standing by the rest of her Whitehall waste plan to cut a further £2.2bn in spending – including removing diversity and inclusion roles from government departments, considering a reduction in holiday from 27 to 25 days and moving more civil service jobs out of London.
Source: information.sky.com”