Luke Pollard, the MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, has joined with Labour leader Keir Starmer in calling for a pay rise for NHS staff – calling them “Plymouth’s COVID heroes”.
Now the small print of the Chancellor’s Budget, announced on Wednesday, is beginning to be understood, it has been revealed that NHS frontline staff will only receive a ‘pitiful’ 1% pay increase – and the rest of the public sector will have their pay frozen. When inflation is considered, this represents a real terms pay cut for NHS staff.
This has been met with a public outcry when compared to other recent government spending announcements, for example the £200,000 which will be spent renovating the PM’s Downing Street flat, the £340,000 the government had to pay as a response to allegations of the Home Secretary Priti Patel’s bullying, the 40% pay rise given to the Prime Minister’s former Adviser Dominic Cummings last year, and the extra £17billion allocated to the failed Test and Trace service in the Budget.
Luke Pollard MP said:
“This pay rise is pitiful. No wonder the Chancellor tried to hide it in the small print to his budget. After the year NHS staff have just had a real terms pay cut is an insult and a real slap in the face. Ministers need to realise that clapping for key workers does not pay their bills.
“I speak for the vast majority of Plymouth when I say that key workers should get a decent pay rise.”