'We'll look in the round': PM refuses to commit to 4pc public sector pay rises amid strike threats

28 April 2025, 11:33 | Updated: 28 April 2025, 11:49

Sir Keir Starmer has failed to commit to bigger pay rises for teachers and nurses as experts say they should receive salary increases of as much as four per cent.

The Prime Minister was asked by LBC whether NHS workers and teachers will get more than the 2.8% already budgeted for.

Sir Keir replied: "The Pay Review Body sets out the recommendations and then in due course, the government will respond to that.

"Last year, we accepted the recommendations and that meant a pay rise. Much deserved, in my view, for our police, for our soldiers, for our nurses and for our doctors.

"And that has helped us, working with the NHS, to drive down waiting lists.

"Three million extra appointments since we've been in government. But we're going to have to look at the recommendations in the round when we have them and respond accordingly".

The independent pay review body representing 514,000 teachers has recommended a pay rise of close to 4 per cent, while the one for 1.38 million NHS workers has recommended closer to 3 per cent.

Both figures are higher than the 2.8per cent the government had budgeted for in their proposals to the pay bodies, and are likely to place further strain on public finances.

It is estimated that if implemented in full the findings would add at least £1billion to costs.

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Embattled Chancellor Rachel Reeves is already struggling to balance the books as the economy stalls in the face of Donald Trump's trade war, with mounting speculation she will have to increase taxes again or curb spending at the Budget this Autumn.

Today Health Minister Stephen Kinnock said the government will give "careful consideration" to pay rise recommendations for NHS workers but must make sure to balance the books.

Urging the trade unions to "engage constructively with us" he added: "We are all about putting more money into the pockets of working people, but we do also have to ensure that we are balancing the books, and we have got to work in terms of public sector pay within fiscal constraints."

The government could reject the pay recommendations and stick to 2.8 per cent.

But it is more likely that ministers say the higher pay will have to be funded by existing budgets and efficiency savings.

That would set ministers on a collision course with trade unions and - government insiders privately concede - make a new wave of strikes possible.

Teaching unions NASUWT and National Education Union, which together represent the bulk of England's teaching workforce, have already threatened strikes if pay rises trigger cuts or layoffs.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has previously said the government's approach "indicates a poor grasp of the unresolved issues from two years of industrial action".