Meacher attacks Balls over pay

LABOUR will never gain credibility while it continues to parrot the Tory line, Michael Meacher has warned.
The Oldham West and Royton MP said it was “wholly unacceptable” for Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls to endorse the Government’s public-sector wage freeze until the end of this Parliament.

Mr Meacher said it was grossly unfair to inflict a wage freeze for this year and next year, and then a flat 1 per cent rise in the next two years — still a wage cut in real terms because inflation is expected to be rising at 2 per cent a year.

The MP spoke out after Ed Balls sparked fury among officials of unions affiliated to Labour when he said in a major speech that public-sector pay restraint was “inevitable”.

Unions representing millions of teachers, nurses, council staff, civil servants and other public-sector workers are embroiled in a bitter dispute with the Government over changes to pensions and are also campaigning against a decision by Chancellor George Osborne to cap pay rises to 1 per cent a year.

Mr Balls said in his speech to the Fabian Society: “We cannot make any commitments now that the next Labour government will reverse tax rises or spending cuts, and we will not.

“Pay restraint in the public sector in this parliament would have been necessary whoever was in government. But George Osborne’s economic mistakes mean more difficult decisions on tax, spending and pay.

“It is now inevitable that public-sector pay restraint will have to continue for longer in this parliament. Labour cannot duck that reality — and we won’t. Jobs must be our priority before higher pay.”

Mr Meacher said Mr Balls did not have to make the statement and said it was “absurd” it was necessary to make Labour credible.

Mr Meacher added: “In fact the exact opposite is true, the Labour Party will never gain credibility while it continues robotically to parrot the Tory line.

“Of course, a shadow Chancellor cannot, more than three years from the next election, make any detailed spending commitments — nor would he be expected to — but, if pressed, he could certainly make clear his intention to redress the worst of the cuts as soon as the economic situation allowed.”

“No-one is talking about the top 1 per cent of earners with salaries of more than £150,000 and no cap is being put on their pay, incentives, stock options or bonuses, Mr Meacher said.

“Justice, Ed Balls, is what the Labour Party is about, not sucking up to the Tory party or their Blairite friends,” he concluded.