Rishi Sunak has insisted he would “love” to give striking nurses large pay rises, but argued he cannot because he does not want to stoke a “vicious cycle” of inflation or increase taxes.
The Prime Minister is under growing pressure to end the wave of public sector strikes, with a fresh round of mass industrial action set to begin on Wednesday.
Up to half a million workers including teachers, train drivers and civil servants will start the walkouts before nurses and ambulance workers again walk out next week.
Further tax increases
But Mr Sunak also faces demands from his Conservative colleagues not to further increase taxes as he tries to hit his target of reducing soaring inflation this year by half.
Mr Sunak was asked: “When are you actually going to pay nurses properly?” as he addressed an audience of health workers during a visit to Darlington.
“I would love – nothing would give me more pleasure – than to wave a magic wand and have all of you paid lots more,” he said.
But he argued it is “not an easy job” to balance many competing interests for Government funding, as he warned against further stoking inflation to bring down bills.
“I’ve got to get a grip of that for all of you, it’s the most important thing. If we don’t do that we won’t be able to afford anything in the future,” he said.
Brexit impact
But as Femi Oluwole pointed out, the prime minister seemingly overlooked recent data that suggests Brexit reduced UK tax receipts by £40 billion a year.
John Springford from the Centre for European Reform (CER) has been modelling the economic performance of a UK that remained in the EU since 2018, using data from countries like the US, Germany, New Zealand, Norway and Australia, whose performance was similar to the UK’s before Brexit.
According to his findings, the difference in performance between his “doppelgänger UK economy” and the real thing is stark.
Wonder why the PM has been reluctant to say so?
Related: UK economy set to slam into reverse in 2023 as outlook improves for other G7 nations