'There's no money': UK transport minister on funding worker's wages
3 Min Read
Mark Harper is calling broke.
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Mark Harper, Transport Secretary, who argues that Downing Street does not have any money to fund wage hikes (screengrab)
There "simply isn't the money," argued British Transport Secretary Mark Harper, as London allocates billions of dollars worth of military aid to Ukraine.
The conversation revolved around funding wage hikes which could potentially make facing the recession in the UK a lot easier. Labour is pointing to Harper, arguing that he should be "moving heaven and earth" to try and avoid strikes in the winter.
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Speaking to Sky News, Harper said inflation-busting pay rises are "unaffordable" amid mass strikes in the public sector. There "simply isn't the money" to fund such wage hikes, even in line with the rising prices on a national scale, going on to hint that there is progress in talks over the rail dispute.
Unless they get a 19% pay rise, nurses in the UK will be staging their first-ever nationwide strike in December.
Last month, inflation in the UK hit 11.1%, a 41-year high, hiking up energy and food bills.
Arguing against the measures, Harper said, "We're facing a very difficult economic situation.
"There's the getting the economy back on track after the pandemic. There's the war in Ukraine. So I think we want to make sure people have pay rises, but they've got to be pay rises that are affordable for the public sector and in the wider economic context."
He added: "I think inflation-matching or inflation-bustings are unaffordable. I think we want to try and give all the workers in the public sector who work very hard decent pay rises, but they can't be inflation-busting pay rises."
"There simply isn't the money to pay for those given the context, we haven't seen those in the private sector either, the private sector pay rises have generally been settled below the level of inflation, which I accept is difficult for people."
To make ends meet, UK parents skip meals
Close to a third of single parents have resorted to skipping meals to make ends meet because of rising food costs, according to research revealing the household types worst hit by the cost of living crisis.
In a survey of single-parent households, three out of ten reported missing meals as a result of skyrocketing food prices, compared with an overall 14% and one in seven parents in couples in the poll conducted by the consumer group Which?
“Our research has found that families across the UK are struggling with the rising cost of living, with single parents most likely to be skipping meals or turning to food banks to make ends meet,” said Rocio Concha, the group's director of policy and advocacy.
The most recent official data revealed that the cost of staples like milk, butter, cheese, pasta, and eggs increased significantly in October, pushing food price inflation to 16.4%, the highest level since 1977. 10% of single parents reported to Which? compared to an average of 3% that they had used a food bank in the previous two months.
