Inflation-level pay rises for public sector workers are “unaffordable”, Lisa Nandy has conceded.
The Labour frontbencher’s comments come as the country braces itself for a wave of strikes by railway workers and nurses.
Appearing on Sky News’s ‘Ridge on Sunday’ programme this morning, transport secretary Mark Harper said there “simply isn’t the money” to give workers pay rises matching or exceeding inflation which is currently running at 10.1%.
He said: “Inflation-matching or inflation busting pay rises are unaffordable.
“I think we want to try and give all the workers in the public sector who work very hard decent pay rises, but they can’t be inflation-busting pay rises.
“There simply isn’t the money to pay for those given the context, we haven’t seen those in the private sector either, the private sector pay rises have generally been settled below the level of inflation, which I accept is difficult for people.”
Asked on the same programme if she agreed, shadow levelling up secretary Nandy said: “Well, they’re unaffordable because of 12 years of Tory government and 44 days in which Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng crashed the economy.
“I think there ought to be a level of humility about that within government.
“What [Mark Harper] should be doing is moving heaven and earth to try and avert strikes coming up this winter. It’s been a really tough year for a lot of people and nobody wants to see strikes, least of all the people who are having to resort to strike action.”