No10 rips apart civil servants' demands for four-day week amid calls for strike

Downing Street has today slapped down civil servant demands for a four-day week as union bosses lay a strike trap by holding a ballot for 150,000 members of staff.

The Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents civil servants across the UK, last night announced it would ask members to vote on new industrial action.

Civil servants will be asked to decide whether to walk out amid Whitehall’s battle with the Government over pay and conditions.

PCS fat-cats have put in a request for a “cost of living” pay rise.

The move could bring a “living wage” of £15 per hour, a London weighting for workers based in the capital of £5,000 and 35 days' holiday.

Cabinet Minister John Glen has already rejected a push from PCS for a four-day union.

Downing Street pushed back against PCS' demands for a shortened working week.

A spokesperson told reporters: “I think we've been asked about a four-day week before.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

• Labour MP failed to challenge 'socialist' civil servant who said he wanted to 'hit' police officer
• Letter demanding Sunak QUIT as PM signed by 5,000 Tory backers in just 24 hours
• Labour MP reacts as London branded 'no-go zone for Jews'

“And we've been very clear that we think that civil servants should be focusing all of their energies on delivering for the taxpayer.

“That includes being available and working with ministers in departments, and in offices up and down the country, every day of the week.”

PCS will hold its ballot between March 18 and May 13 for possible strike action.

It has been urging members to “send a signal” that “we are serious serious about moving to industrial action to get them to meet our demands”.

Fran Heathcote, the PCS general secretary, said: “We warned the Government that our national campaign would continue if our demands were not met.

“We won pay rises last year of up to 5 per cent for all our members, plus a one-off cost of living payment of £1,500.

“We told ministers we expected at least inflation-proof pay rises this year, but so far they have refused to commit to even that.

“Our members showed last year they were prepared to take sustained strike action.

“The Government can expect more of the same this year if they don't meet our demands and treat our hard-working members with the respect they deserve.”

A recent PCS survey found a staggering 96 per cent backed pay demands, 82 per cent were prepared to strike and 66 per cent supported a strike levy to fund paid targeted action.

However, civil servants north of the border will not be balloted after agreeing to a two-year pay deal with the Scottish Government last year.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “It would be premature to ballot members on industrial action while ongoing discussions on the civil service pay remit guidance take place.

“To ensure that these talks are productive, we encourage unions to continue to engage with officials as part of the usual process.

“This year's pay remit guidance will be published in due course and we will continue dialogue with unions.”

PCS held separate strikes on March 15 and April 28 last year.

from GB News https://ift.tt/VOUEZvw

How 2024's global elections could shape the world

With over 50 countries going to the polls, 2024 is set to be a record year for elections – making this a key year for global politics.

from Political News - International and UK Politics | Sky News https://ift.tt/ugVbcWj

‘Nothing has changed’ about the Tories and that is the party's big problem - analysis by Christopher Hope

"Nothing has changed," Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on a visit to Yorkshire today when asked when the General Election was going to be. It was an echo of Theresa May's defence of her manifesto at the 2017 general election when I asked her (for The Daily Telegraph) what else will change in the manifesto after the infamous about turn on the dementia tax.

Sunak’s answer means that he is still planning to go to the polls in the second half of this year, and there was little in the Budget to suggest anything different, with large cuts to National Insurance which are still far less electorally potent than cutting income tax.

I caught up with Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, in the state room of 11 Downing Street earlier today, just back from a trip to a new vaccines manufacturing plant in Liverpool.

I was struck by his non-answer when I asked him towards the end if he was planning for a second fiscal event in September ahead of the expected polling day in November.

"Is this the last we'll hear from you with the Red box or even giving out a fiscal statement? There are rumours of an autumn statement again, which might cut income tax, maybe in September ahead of a November election," I asked him.

Hunt said: "I hope it's not the last you hear from me because I’m loving being Chancellor. I want to be Chancellor for a long time. We have to have a general election. The Prime Minister says it'll be before the end of the year. And so in the end, it's in the hand of the electorate."

That, to me, says that Hunt is planning for a second tax-cutting moment before the election, and would explain the workaday nature of his Spring Budget.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

• 'Why are we still paying money to France!?' Andrea Jenkyns blasts 'they're not doing anything to help us stop the boats'
• 'I won't take lectures from you!' Mordaunt slams Labour for 'clobbering motorists'
• Britain to send 10,000 ‘cutting-edge drones’ to Ukraine in major show of support

In the interview, he made clear that the Government had to change its economic model and wean companies off the supply of cheap foreign labour, and justified why he had spent £1million of taxpayers' money on a war memorial to the 170,000 Muslim soldiers who died in the First and Second World Wars.

Hunt also insisted the Treasury was not over-attached to the forecasts of the Office for Budget Responsibility, as has been claimed by senior rightwing Tories including former Cabinet minister David Davis.

It was a confident performance by the Chancellor, defending what I think is a so-so Budget which looks set to be forgotten by the weekend.

For me, Hunt's Budget felt like a fiscal statement from a Government in the second term of a Parliament - not the fifth.

Time is running out for the Tories to move the dial and capture the imagination of voters who seem increasingly ready to take a chance on Sir Keir Starmer's Labour Party to form the next Government and take the UK into the 2030s.

from GB News https://ift.tt/fz3UgGR

'Nothing has changed': Sunak quashes speculation of May general election

Rishi Sunak has appeared to quash lingering speculation of a May general election - saying "nothing has changed" since he last indicated it will happen in the autumn.

from Political News - International and UK Politics | Sky News https://ift.tt/WxeIHqG

Cherie Blair reveals advice Hillary Clinton gave her before she entered No 10

Cherie Blair has revealed the advice Hillary Clinton gave to her before her husband's landslide victory at the 1997 general election.

from Political News - International and UK Politics | Sky News https://ift.tt/aE47qGt

UK to supply 10,000 more drones to Ukraine

The UK will supply 10,000 more drones to Ukraine, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has announced during his third visit to the war-torn country.

from Political News - International and UK Politics | Sky News https://ift.tt/Ns9feHV

Budget will 'put more money in people's pockets' claims Tory MP

The Chancellor’s Budget will put more money in people’s pockets and the economy has “turned round the corner”, according to the Economic Secretary to the Treasury Bim Afolami.

He told GB News: “Really, the most important thing we've done here is to put more money in their pockets…that isn't going to happen literally at this moment, but in the weeks and months to come.

“With inflation continuing to come down, with mortgage rates continuing to come down, and with those incomes really coming into their pay packets, I hope that your viewers will see the actions of what we've done today and that they will benefit directly from that.”

Asked by Martin Daubney if the Government was giving a real cut in taxes, he said: “We’ve very aggressively tried to eliminate this double tax on work, National Insurance for working people.

“We've begun and continue the process of bringing their tax rates down and those take-home pay numbers…they are going to feel better off than they otherwise would have done without those National Insurance cuts.

“Now, I completely understand that people will feel, well over the last few years that taxes have gone up for them and that's true. And the reason for that was, as a result of the pandemic, the Government spent over £400 billion supporting British people and British families.

“But now is the time, over the last six months or so, cutting National Insurance in the Autumn Statement, cutting it again now, getting rid of that double tax on work. This is our path to lower taxes.

“And we're doing this all at the same time as maintaining high levels of public services and increasing the spending in public services and also making sure that we're improving the productivity so that it actually it gets to the frontline as effectively as possible.”

He added: “We're doing all of that in a sensible balanced way, but it's not going to happen immediately. It is going to happen with time but they've got to stick with the plan, the economy's turned round the corner and we will deliver for them.”

WATCH ABOVE.

from GB News https://ift.tt/9ChsUtX