40 Tory MP ready revolt public sector pay cap
Theresa May is facing a fresh revolt from her own backbenchers as up to 40 Tory MPs have demanded an end to the public sector pay cap.
The beleaguered PM last night narrowly saw off a Labour amendment to the Queen’s Speech demanding the austerity measure is axed.
The amendment failed to get the backing of any Tory MPs who believed it was tabled in a bare-faced attempt to sabotage the government’s legislative agenda and humiliate Mrs May.
But dozens of Tories have made it clear to the government that they want the 1 per cent cap lifted amid a growing clamour to ease the relentless austerity measures.
Theresa May, pictured in the Commons yesterday, saw off a Labour amendment calling for her to scrap the 1% public sector pay cap. But she is facing a brewing revolt on the issues form Tory MPs
Tory MP and former business minister George Freeman has spoken out about his concerns at the cap.
Outlining his position last night on Twitter, he wrote that 40 Conservative MPs have ‘signalled we need a different approach to public pay cap’ and that they believe ministers are ‘listening’.
Fellow Tory MP Johnny Mercer also spoke out against the cap on Twitter but said he would not play the ‘political game’ by backing the Labour amendment.
Tory MP George Freeman said 40 Conservative MPs have voiced their opposition to thecap
He said: ‘I will persistently be a loud voice to remove public sector pay cap for frontline workers. But will not vote with this political game today.’
Meanwhile, Nick Macpherson, the former permanent secretary to the Treasury under George Osborne and now a crossbench peer, also voiced his belief that the writing is on the wall for the public sector pay cap.
He wrote on Twitter: ‘Triple lock. Winter fuel. Public sector pay. NI bung. Tories implementing Labour & DUP policies. Defeat in victory. #highertaxinevitable.’
While Tory former Cabinet minister Stephen Crabb said the cap on nurses pay should be lifted.
The government have been plunged into chaos over its position on the controversial cap.
The day began with a series of Cabinet ministers breaking cover to indicate that the 1 per cent cap should be loosened after the Conservatives were given a bloody nose in the election.
Downing Street seemed to endorse the idea in a briefing after PMQs at lunchtime – but hours later insisted that the ‘policy had not changed’.
Chancellor Philip Hammond is thought to have been furious at being ‘bounced’ into a move that could potentially cost billions of pounds a year.
But culture minister Matt Hancock gave another broad hint that the shift is under way this morning, pointing out that the deficit was now lower than before the credit crunch.
Tory MP Johnny Mercer also said he will be a loud voice against the pay cap
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘On public sector pay, there is a process… all the independent public sector pay review bodies report. They take into account the evidence, they also look at what is affordable.
‘There is an important reason why we have had these restrictions for a number of years.
‘But the deficit is now down by three quarters… it is lower than the crash of 2009.’
The cap was introduced by George Osborne 2012 and is due to stay in place until 2020 as part of plans to cut the deficit.
Lifting it by one per cent for the country’s five million public sector workers would cost an estimated £2billion a year – and that would still be well below the current CPI inflation rate of 2.9 per cent.
Former Permanent Secretary to the Treasury said he believes the public sector pay cap will be gone as Theresa May is forced to effectively implement a series of policies her manifesto opposed because of her deal with the DUP
A series of public pay review bodies, who advise on salaries for public sector workers, are due to report on their latest recommendations in the autumn, and ministers could seize on this as an opportunity to do away with the cap.
But Tory MPs faced a backlash online by social media users who demanded to know why they did not back Labour’s amendment.
The clause, which called for an end to the cap and for more police and firefighters to be recruited in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster was voted down by 323 votes to 309 votes, a majority of just 14 MPs.
All ten DUP MPs voted with the government on the vote after the party promised to prop Mrs May up in No10 as part of a deal which will see an extra £1billion into northern Ireland’s coffers.
If the PM had lost, it would have would have plunged her administration into turmoil.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, pictured in the Commons yesterday, last night failed to get his amendment to the Queen’s Speech calling for the pay cap to be scrapped through the Commons
The shambles over the pay restrictions began yesterday when Tory grandee Oliver Letwin said taxes should rise to meet voters’ demands for an easing of curbs on public spending.
‘I think sooner or later there will need to be some movement on the rate of increase of public sector pay because we are getting close to the point at which the huge increase in public sector pay compared to private sector pay which we inherited in 2010 is levelling out,’ he said.
‘And I have no doubt that at some point or other we will need to look at that.’
Soon afterwards Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said ministers were ‘considering’ the pay cap amid growing signs of a change in approach to austerity.
Cabinet colleague Chris Grayling also fuelled speculation by saying the government was determined to ‘learn the lessons’ from the bloody nose suffered by the Tories at the election.
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