The Downing Street media grid must be a rather dismal affair these days, with announcements planned that barely get any attention at all thanks to a combination of Brexit and another minister being on the brink of resignation. But one story that has come off reasonably well is today’s public sector pay award. Ministers have confirmed that around one million workers in the health service, schools, armed forces and so on will receive a raise of between 1.5 and 3.5 per cent.
Obviously, this works nicely politically because everyone loves a pay rise. But the small print of this announcement reveals that it’s not going to make life dramatically easier for ministers. The Treasury press release says: ‘Today’s increases are funded from departmental budgets.’ Separately, Treasury ministers have been making very clear in Cabinet meetings that there will be no big funding deals for other departments along the lines of that awarded to the NHS recently.
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