Tory leadership hopeful Liz Truss has quickly U-turned on plans that would have seen public sector workers paid less in areas like the North East after it came under fire from across the political divide.
In her latest pitch to Conservative Party members - most of whom are thought to live in the South - Ms Truss had promised a “war on Whitehall waste” and plans for regional pay boards that would set public sector pay lower in cheaper areas of the country.
Her proposals met with a furious response from a major civil service union, which vowed to oppose her plans “every step of the way”, while senior Labour figures accused her of “levelling down”. A number of leading Conservative politicians in the North East also condemned the plans.
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A few hours after the potential policy was first outlined, Ms Truss' campaign insisted there had been “wilful misrepresentation” of the public sector pay cut plan.
A spokeswoman said: “Over the last few hours there has been a wilful misrepresentation of our campaign. Current levels of public sector pay will absolutely be maintained.
“Anything to suggest otherwise is simply wrong. Our hard-working frontline staff are the bedrock of society and there will be no proposal taken forward on regional pay boards for civil servants or public sector workers.”
Ms Truss had earlier said that she would run a "leaner, more efficient, more focused Whitehall” while a briefing note from her campaign had pointed to £8.8bn in savings that could be made from regional pay. Ms Truss is thought to have backed regional pay when she was a senior Treasury Minister in 2018.
Before the U-turn, unions, Labour politicians and Tories backing Rishi Sunak had lined up to condemn the proposals. Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen said he was "speechless" while North East MPs Guy Opperman and Richard Holden had made clear their opposition.
Former chief whip Mark Harper, a supporter of Rishi Sunak, said Liz Truss should “stop blaming journalists – reporting what a press release says isn’t ‘wilful misrepresentation'” of her now abandoned regional pay policy. And Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has accused Liz Truss of running her leadership campaign with “incompetence”.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “It seemed to be a plan to declare lots of towns as low-pay zones. And it would create a race to the bottom, making well-paid work harder to find.
“She may have withdrawn the plan for now but after 12 years already of Conservative pay caps and cuts, both Truss and Sunak are still committed to holding down pay behind rising prices across the public sector.”
Labour had said the plan would take £529m out of the North East economy each year. Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “This latest mess has exposed exactly what Liz Truss thinks of public sector workers across Britain.
“Her proposal – and the fact she pushed for a similar change in 2018 when she was a Treasury minister – reveals her priority would be to slash the pay packets of working people. That would suck money out of local economies and send our communities backward.”
The first major error from Ms Truss’s campaign came as Mr Sunak battles to make up ground during what is a key week in the contest for the keys to No 10. Monday night’s hustings will be followed by three further head-to-head clashes, including a televised Sky debate on Thursday.
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