What the papers say: The Tories must start acting like a Government again

‘Spare a thought for Philip Hammond,’ says the Times. The Chancellor once looked certain to lose his job – and yet while he might now be safe in his position, his role is only getting tougher. His Cabinet colleagues are queuing up to tell him that now is the time to lift the cap on public sector pay. In response, ‘the Chancellor is expected to fight a rearguard action’, says the Times, which says Hammond is ‘right’ to take this approach. This response also won’t be in ‘in vain’ if he is able to make the point that a pay rise must come with ‘a commensurate increase in productivity’. It’s true, for instance, that the NHS ‘spends less per patient’ than most similar health services around the world. Yet ‘it still tolerates enormous waste’, says the Times, which make the point that ‘the state cannot afford to pay its workers more without reforms that make it more efficient’.