Public sector workers to get 5% pay rise from April if Labour wins election
2 min read
Public sector workers will receive a 5% boost to their pay packets from next year if Labour wins the general election.
The move, which would cost £5.3bn, is aimed at bringing the salaries of nurses, teachers and police officers up to where they should have been if George Osborne had not introduced a pay freeze in 2010.
The plan was a key plank of Labour's election manifesto, which the party unveiled in Birmingham on Thursday.
The move would see newly-qualified nurses receive an extra £1,200 every year, with firefighters getting a rise of £1,800, and school teachers earning £2,000 more.
Junior doctors would make almost £1,400 more, police constables getting an extra £2,000, Army sergeants receiving £1,700, civil servants's earnings going up by £1,300 and council workers getting a boost of £1,200.
Mr Corbyn said of the proposals: “Our most valuable assets are the dedicated people who work in our public services, but they have been treated appallingly over the last decade of cuts and neglect under the Conservatives.
“Labour will give our nurses, teachers, doctors, firefighters, police and others a pay rise to begin to undo the damage caused by the Tories and Lib Dems and reward the people who do so much for us all.
“This is what real change looks like. Labour on your side, while the Tories cosy up to their billionaire backers.”
Elsewhere, the 107-page document laid out plans to hit oil and gas companies with an £11bn one-off “windfall tax” that would help boost the transition towards low-carbon jobs.
Mr Corbyn also vowed to ramp up levies on big business, boost capital investment, build a wave of new council houses and put more money into the NHS, social care and schools.
The party said it would increase the tax take by £82.9bn over the next five years to help pay for a number of big-ticket spending pledges.
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe
