Politics

Just three Labour MPs back calls for higher pay for staff

The Labour Party has voted against securing higher pay for their staff.

In an Early Day Motion petition, just three of the party’s MPs backed calls to increase pay in line with union demands.

The move by Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Mary Kelly Foy and Grahame Morris comes amid continued lobbying by the Unite Union parliamentary branch, which this morning sent an email to parliamentary staffers asking them to join the strike campaign about staffers’ pay.

The communique, seen by Guido, reiterates the union’s demand for RPI +2 per cent, amid real terms pay cuts and increased workloads.

The union is set to meet again on 17th February when members will vote on a motion to ballot for industrial action.

MPs, they warn, will be the “focus of the ballot”, since they are the sole employer of the staff proposing strike action.

It comes as nurses and ambulance staff walked out together for the first time in what is being described as the biggest walk out in the NHS’s history.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said strikes will continue for “as long as it takes”, while Unite warned of a “constant cycle” of industrial action.

Union leaders implored the Government to act to prevent further strike action but ministers have insisted they cannot afford “inflation-busting pay rises”.

Related: Brexiteers will admit EU exit has been a disaster ‘after a drink or two’ – Amber Rudd

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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