Politics: Osborne’s Autumn Statement was about creating more Tories

It was political jujitsu. The coalition turned the public sector unions’ strike back against them. When the unions first decided to stage a walk-out the day after the government’s Autumn Statement, they wanted to show that reforms wouldn’t go through without a fight. But the coalition has chosen to embrace this conflict. Senior Cabinet ministers have taken to saying, ‘You can’t understand Tuesday [the Autumn Statement] without Wednesday [the strike].’

The government wants to be seen as on the side of necessary but fair reform; facing down opponents who believe in ‘something for nothing economics’. Public sector unions, with their desire to protect pensions that are far more generous than those on offer in the private sector, are ideal opponents in the eyes of coalition strategists.

On Tuesday, George Osborne chose to raise the stakes in this battle. He announced that he was asking ‘the independent pay review bodies to consider how public sector pay can be made more responsive to local labour markets’.