Senior Conservatives concede tax rises needed to fund services
Pressure mounts on May to lift public sector pay cap as revolt against austerity grows
Leading figures in Britain's ruling Conservative Party conceded on Wednesday that tax rises would have to be considered to relieve pressure on straining public services, handing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn a coup in the process.
The Tories were forced into what appeared to be the first stage of a climbdown after voters rejected at years of austerity at the June General Election, resulting in a hung parliament and a weakened Prime Minister Theresa May who lost her majority.
Party heavyweight Oliver Letwin, a former adviser to David Cameron renowned for not spinning any issue, said in blunt terms that “a large number of people will have to pay a little more tax” to achieve deficit reduction and higher spending on “crucial” public services.
“People were much more concerned at this election than they had been at the previous two about spending on schools, spending on health, spending on social care, crucial public services which now seem to be under strain,” he said.
The electorate's view was reinforced by the publication of the annual Social Attitudes survey, which found that 47% of Britons now believed in “tax and spend” policies along with a rise in sympathy for those on benefits.
Corbyn, who has consistently advocated more public spending on the NHS and social care, was gearing up on Wednesday for the first stage of a parliamentary guerrilla campaign to disrupt the weakened minority government's legislative programme.
Emboldened by his better-than-expected performance at the election where his anti-austerity message resonated with voters, Corbyn said he would table an amendment to the Queen's Speech ending the 1% pay cap for public sector workers.
Corbyn was speaking two weeks after the Grenfell apartment tower block fire which has so far claimed the lives of 79 people after external cladding ignited and accelerated the blaze. Public anger at perceived corner cutting on safety has added to the groundswell of opposition towards the government and budget cuts.
“You can’t have safety and security on the cheap. It is plain to see that seven years of cuts to our emergency services has made us less safe. It’s time to make a change,” Corbyn said.
"There is a link between cuts in local authority expenditure and the level of building control, inspections that have taken place and therefore the safety of the residents in those towers.
"We cannot have our citizens living in danger of a fireball."
Corbyn has demanded that nurses, teachers and emergency services workers should receive better pay and more funding for the services they provide.
Letwin conceded there would “need to be some movement on the rate of increase of public sector pay” as private sector wages started to pull ahead.
Meanwhile Defence Secretary Michael Fallon also said pay rises would need to be considered.
"It’s partly a matter for the pay review bodies but it also involves a forecast of where you expect inflation to be. I think we expect inflation to start falling back again from the autumn onwards. But it is obviously something we have to consider not just for the army but right across the public sector as a whole," he said.