Public sector workers accused the Chancellor of treating them with “utter contempt” as more than 40,000 striking teachers, doctors and civil servants rallied on budget day.
Members of the National Education Union travelled from up and down the country to attend the Save Our Schools demo, marching from Speakers’ Corner to Trafalgar Square in central London on the first of a two-day walkout.
They were joined by members of the British Medical Association on the final day of a 72-hour junior doctors’ strike and members of the Public and Commercial Services Union, who also staged walkouts on Wednesday.
It also came as 10,000 RMT workers shut the London Underground in a strike over pensions, job cuts and working conditions.
Reacting to Jeremy Hunt ’s budget announcement, year six teacher Tracey Smith, 61, from Gillingham, told the Mirror key workers have been “forgotten”.
She said: “During Covid we were key workers but on budget day all the key workers have been forgotten.
“If they can’t find money to look after their own people then they shouldn’t be in power.
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“There’s thousands of us here today but the government doesn’t seem to care.
“We want them to wake up and listen. You have to invest in teachers who are educating the future generation.
“Would everyone in government be where they are today without good teachers?”
Her colleague Fay Fautley, 40, who teaches reception, said the new childcare provision announced for one and two-year-olds was welcome, but said the government still needs to invest in staff.
She added: “It’s lovely to have extra childcare, but who is going to be delivering that childcare? You can’t just pay people peanuts to look after children. That’s why so many nurseries are closing.
“They need to wake up and live in our world. I bet there’s not many of them that send their kids to state school.”
Teacher Amy Kilpatrick, 41, of Newcastle, said nurseries relied on staff who earned the minimum wage in a private sector already struggling to cope with demand.
“Increasing the ratio of staff to children is a concern,” said Amy, whose two-year-old son’s childcare is £65-a-day.
“Nurseries are oversubscribed. They would have to cram more children in.
That will not work. It needs proper funding.
“In early year settings many staff are school leavers. They are trained for the job they do and are extremely hard working.
“But imagine dealing with a room full of two-year-olds, then being asked to take more. It is far from a stress free job.”
Niam Moore, 31, who teaches at a SEND school in east London, said the budget showed the government’s “utter contempt” for thousands of public sector workers out on strike.
“We just don’t feel like they have listened to what we have to say,” he added. “It’s like they have made up their minds and that’s it.
“I haven’t been in education very long and I already feel like I am reaching the point where I can’t stay.”
His colleague Jane Carter, 59, added: “The money is there. It’s a political decision - there ways of raising money and organising taxes.
“It’s just not good enough. I think it’s a bit of an insult to the general public to think that people don’t care enough to pay us more.”
Speaking from the central London rally, Phil Banfield, chair of the BMA,
said Wednesday’s budget was a “missed opportunity” to support medics and public sector workers.
He told the Mirror: “There doesn’t appear to be anything in this budget for junior doctors or nurses.
“We are glad that the chancellor has listened to the pressure already put by the BMA over pensions which may help with retention of senior doctors - but is it too little too late?
“There are some elements of the new childcare which may be helpful, but the cost of out of hours childcare for junior doctors remains prohibitive compared to what they are earning.
“This is a great missed opportunity. The government can perfectly afford a properly funded NHS and to pay public sector workers fairly. It’s a political choice not to.”
At a picket line in Carlisle, Cumbria, junior doctors told of colleagues planning to leave the UK to work abroad, where they can earn far more money.
Dr Ella Cooper, of North Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Every junior doctor has a plan to get out or move abroad to Australia or New Zealand.
“We want to be paid adequately but we don’t think we should be the only people, it is also nurses, train drivers and binmen.”
Deputy president of the PCS Martin Cavanagh said its members - which include government workers, civil servants, job centre staff and driving test centre workers - kept the country running during the pandemic.
But the cost of living crisis has left their members struggling to make ends meet, with 40,000 forced to rely on food banks according to a recent survey.
He told the Mirror: “We all know that they can afford to give all public sector workers a decent pay rise and still have plenty of change. This is a huge missed opportunity.
“But this has made us even more determined. We will not go away until we get what our members deserve.
“40,000 members have told us that they have to use food banks - that shows how difficult it is for them.
“They are no longer choosing between heating and eating because they can’t do either.”
