'Tory Budget has no plan to fix country and is a let-down for working people'

15 March 2023 , 16:02

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Jeremy Hunt has no plan to get pay rising after years of underfunding left public services on their knees (Image: PA)

Another Conservative Budget. Another let-down for working people. .

We’re in the worst cost-of-living crisis for generations. We have sky-high inflation. And we have the longest pay squeeze in 200 years.

But the Conservatives showed today they have no plan to fix this country.

No plan to get pay rising. No plan to improve jobs. And no plan to save our vital public services.

A strong economy depends on high-quality public services to keep people healthy, to educate the next generation and to provide care for our loved ones.

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But years of underfunding under the Tories has left our public services on their knees.

We live in a country where hospitals are setting up food banks to feed their own staff.

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak has hit out at the Tory Budget (PA)

Where headteachers can’t recruit science and maths staff. Where job centre workers have to claim the benefits they’re handing out to others. And where people have to wait for months for vital medical appointments and operations.

Our public services do not have the capacity or the funding to keep up with demand.

And things could get worse with two in five public servants are saying they are looking to quit.

At a time when City bankers are being allowed unlimited bonuses, one in six public sector workers say they are skipping meals to get by.

We need genuine action to recruit and retain key workers in the NHS, care services and schools.

That means real investment now – including on public sector staff pay. This would help ease the staffing crisis and lay the foundations for a stronger economy in the years ahead.

The expansion of funded childcare follows years of union campaigning – but the funding promised falls well short of what’s needed. Our brilliant childcare workers need better pay and conditions.

The Chancellor says he wants a high-wage, high-skills economy. But on his watch real wages (pay adjusted after inflation) won’t get back to 2008 levels at any point in this Parliament. Yesterday he and his government let down working people.

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Paul Nowak