Bath MP Wera Hobhouse uses first vote in Parliament to back calls to end public sector pay cap

29 June 2017

Wera cast her first vote in Parliament last night in favour of lifting the pay cap on public sector workers...

“With Brexit induced inflation rising, this pay cap has turned into an annual pay cut. Prices are rising, leaving all our public sector workers worse off. Our emergency service professionals are the people who run towards danger, to help and look after us, the public. They deserve a pay rise, not a pay cut!

There are some 2680 police and 1079 nurses working in B&NES. And the Tories aren’t listening. Teresa May reacted with indifference when challenged that nurses were using food banks. Other nurses are having to take second jobs. They are at breaking point. And now we hear that nurses are planning a summer of protests to demand the 1% cap be removed!”

The current cap means that emergency services are currently seeing their wages cut in real terms, with the average fire-fighter set to be an estimated £1,423 a year worse off by 2020-21. The TUC estimates that nurses will be almost £4000 worse off.

“We must stop punishing these heroic people, who come to our aid when we are in need. That is why the Lib Dems are supporting the nurses this summer, by calling on the Tories to remove the pay-cap on all public sector employees immediately.”