Budget Resolutions

Chris Stephens Excerpts

Monday 1st November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Chris Stephens (Glasgow South West) (SNP)]

I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, particularly to my position as chair of the Public and Commercial Services Union parliamentary group, as I shall focus my remarks on public sector pay.

The true test of a Budget is whether the political position holds in the days after or starts to unravel within minutes, which is what happened with this Budget. It did not take very long—indeed, the suggestion that we should all drink sparkling wine is unravelling as we speak, as wine experts cast their eyes over the Budget. We can see the Budget unravelling in no area more than the much-promised pay rise for public sector workers. It turns out that even the Treasury leaks were not accurate, because the Budget provided little or no comfort for civil servants who work for UK Government Departments.

In the past few days, the Chancellor has said in many interviews that pay is a matter for pay review bodies. If someone happens to be a civil servant who works for a UK Government Department, they will discover that their pay is not covered by a pay review body. Treasury money is needed to fund their pay rise. For those who, along with many, have helped to keep the economic wheels turning—who have, for example, processed and paid universal credit payments for a record number of claimants—and who have been subjected to 11 years of pay cuts and pay freezes, there is no clarity at all as to whether they will receive either a real-terms pay cut or a real-terms pay rise. As the hon. Member for Wansbeck (Ian Lavery) said, that is not levelling up.

Added to that is the fact that civil servants continue to overpay their pension contributions by 2%—of course, the Budget said nothing about that—so the Budget does not mean much at all for public sector workers who work for a UK Government Department. Inflation is over 3%, meaning that most have suffered a real-terms pay cut with this year’s pay freeze, and the predictions are that inflation will rise to perhaps 4%, with some even suggesting 6%. We need a commitment from the Government that civil servants will be rewarded.

As always with Budgets, the devil is in the detail. The Chancellor indicated that the Government want to cut jobs to 2019 levels. That would equate to 32,000 jobs leaving UK Government Departments. We have seen the benefits of the public sector and public sector employment, and the need for world-class public services, but the Budget does little to reward those who have kept UK Government Departments going and supported so many people. The Government have a duty and a responsibility to reward handsomely those who work for them.