LONDON (Labour Buzz) - The clapped for front line workers on their doorstep, and then popped back inside to talk about freezing their pay while boosting their own. That’s the damaging message sent out by the Government if rumours about public sector pay freezes are to be believed. Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, Anneliese Dodds, took to TV on Sunday to condemn the move.
Speaking to Marr she said: “We don’t know if this is exactly what the government will put in front of us… What this measure would do is say to our firefighters, hospital porters, teaching assistants that they will have less spending power in the future. That means they won’t be spending in our high streets, small businesses, and that’s a good way of knocking confidence out of our economy.”
She added: “To be clear, I do not believe there should be that freeze right now. I think that’s economically very damaging. It’s an irresponsible choice. I believe it’s wrong for the Chancellor if that’s what he’s going ahead with, to be pitting workers against each other.”
She also refused to offer the government unconditional support on restrictions because of past mistakes. She said that the “Government needs to have learned from all the problems we had previously.” If the plans come with a lack of government support or clarity, she appeared to suggest that Labour could vote with Tory backbenchers to reject the plan.
During last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir Starmer reminded Johnson that he had needed Labour’s support to overcome a major rebellion on the second Lockdown. This statement from Anneliese Dodds reinforced the message that his previous mishandling of the situation meant he should not take Labour’s support for granted in the future.
Also on the Marr Show Chancellor Rishi Sunak was confronted with some of the major failings of his policies including the three million self-employed people who were left high and dry by the lack of Government support and the problems of people being unable to afford to go into isolation.
His somewhat unconvincing approach was to stick his head in the sand and claim he didn’t recognise the figures.
With little more than a week left until the planned lifting of lockdown 2.0 he also failed to give any more details on plans for a tougher tier system after the lifting of restrictions but did say the much-mocked 10 pm curfew would be altered. The policy came in for widespread criticism after Johnson failed to explain the scientific backing for the decision.
It was a less than convincing performance from the Conservative’s great hope which saw him also attempt to defend the government’s procurement scandal and Priti Patel.
“I don’t think shouting is an effective way to get the best out of people, but it is necessary sometimes to be direct in order to drive progress in an organisation particularly under stressful circumstances.”
Dodds meanwhile was notable for her choice of target. Plenty of people have attacked the prospect of a pay freeze for front line workers as being unfair. However, she went a step further and condemned it as being economically dangerous.
(Written by Tom Cropper, Edited by Klaudia Fior)