Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Kate Osborne and Rachel Reeves

Tuesday 3rd September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

As the hon. Gentleman knows, Government borrowing is running at £4.7 billion higher than the OBR forecast because the previous Government made unfunded commitments without any idea of how they were going to be paid for. The previous Government set the mandate for the independent pay review bodies, and we have honoured the recommendations of those bodies to ensure that our armed forces, our police officers, our nurses and our teachers got a pay rise. I think that is the right thing to do. If he does not, I wonder how he justifies that to public sector workers in his constituency.

[Kate Osborne (Jarrow and Gateshead East) (Lab)]

T10. Does the Minister share my concerns about reports of trade union victimisation at HMRC’s Benton Park View office in Newcastle, where three Public and Commercial Services Union reps have already been dismissed and more face live disciplinary proceedings? I am pleased to welcome those three reps to Parliament today. Will the Minister agree to meet them and the PCS about this worrying situation?