Senior Tories have accused Keir Starmer of losing control of public sector pay by agreeing deals to end strikes, but a Labour minister said it was unfair to suggest workers would just keep demanding higher wages.
James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary and a Tory leadership candidate, said on Friday that the prime minister was being “played by union paymasters” in making an offer to train drivers and junior doctors.
The shadow leader of the Commons, Chris Philp, accused Labour of losing control of pay deals and said all unions would demand double-digit rises. The Telegraph reported on Thursday night that GPs were asking for an 11% rise and taking part in industrial action with their pay demands not met.
But Nick Thomas-Symonds, a Cabinet Office minister, said the government was “sticking to the promises we made in opposition” in its deals with public sector workers.
The deal to end the train strikes, which emerged on Wednesday, would include a backdated 5% increase for 2022-23, 4.75% for 2023-24 and a further 4.5% for 2024-25.
The train drivers’ union Aslef has recommended its members accept the offer when they vote on it, which would end a two-year-long dispute during which drivers have taken 18 days of strike action and refused to work non-contractual overtime, causing huge disruption to passengers.
Aslef said on Friday that its members were still intending to strike on the east coast mainline for 22 days in a separate dispute about bullying by management and what the union describes as LNER’s persistent breaking of agreements.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced pay rises for other public sector workers as she laid out plans for public expenditure in the early weeks of Labour coming to power. A separate offer to junior doctors has been made, which is worth 22% over two years.
Thomas-Symonds told Times Radio it was unfair to suggest other public sector workers such as GPs would now be queueing up for a 15% rise as well. “We promised we would sit down and find solutions, and people expressed scepticism about that, but actually that is precisely what we have done in government.”
He also said it was wrong to suggest there would be no reform of the railways alongside the pay offer: “We are absolutely looking to deliver a better service for passengers and, frankly, it’s a low bar given the state the railways have been in recent years.”
