Labour accuses Government of 'divide and rule' tactics over public sector pay

Shadow Chancellor calls for 1 per cent pay cap to be dropped for all public sector workers

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Labour has accused the Government of “divide and rule” tactics over public sector pay amid reports the controversial cap could be scrapped in the autumn budget.

Downing Street recently fuelled speculation by refusing to rule out claims that Theresa May is planning to remove the longstanding 1per cent cap and offer the first rises to the lowest-paid workers and professions that struggle to retain staff such as nurses and senior civil servants.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell condemned efforts for “selective” changes to the cap and vowed that Labour would pile pressure on the Government to scrap the cap for all public sector workers.

His comments came as Labour said it would force a Commons vote on the issue on Wednesday to pressure Ms May to act sooner.

Speaking after addressing a fringe event at the TUC Congress in Brighton, Mr McDonnell said: “We are certainly winning, we are pushing them [The Conservatives] back.

“People see it as just a tactic of divide and rule.

“It’s no good basically scrapping the pay cap for some workers but the workers that are working alongside are still on poverty pay. That’s unacceptable.

“We want the pay cap gone.”

He said that Labour would back support a strike over public sector pay both "in Parliament" and "on the picket lines” after warnings from union leaders over industrial action is the cap is not lifted.

Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth issued a rallying cry to sympathetic Tory MPs, urging them to back a motion in Parliament this week to end the "unfair" cap.

While the vote would be non-binding on the Government, Labour hopes it would heap pressure on ministers to act.

Mr Ashworth told Sky News: "We keep getting briefings in newspapers and suggestions that the Government is sympathetic and wants to do something, and 'Oh, it's terrible and we accept that but let's see where we get to'.

"We're bringing a vote to the House of Commons on Wednesday and those Conservative Members of Parliament who have sincerely said they believe the pay cap should go, we're calling on them to vote with us and I'm calling on your viewers to lobby those Conservative Members of Parliament and let me know what they say."

Meanwhile, union leaders attending the TUC congress announced plans for a campaign in Tory marginal seats by urging members in 27 constituencies with small Conservative majorities to heap pressure on their MP to lift the cap.

Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis said: "There's been speculation ministers might decide to single out a particular group of workers, rather than lift the pay cap for everyone. But no one part of the public sector is any more deserving than the rest.

“After seven long years of pay freezes and limits on their wages, ambulance workers, school meals staff, police and community support officers and other public service employees all deserve so much better.”

Unison said it has 2,000 members in Southampton where Conservative MP Royston Smith has a majority of only 31, while it has 2,600 members in Stephen Crabb's Pembrokeshire seat, who won by 314 votes.