Pay rises without cash mean more cuts to schools and the police. Warm words are not enough - Liberal Democrats Acting Leader Ed Davey

Liberal Democrat Acting Leader Ed Davey has welcomed that nearly 900,000 public sector workers will receive a pay rise but has warned of the consequences of the cost being met out of existing departmental budgets. He said:

"Accepting the independent review body's pay recommendations was the very least the Chancellor could do. Yet, as overall budgets remain unchanged, the reality is our schools, police and wider public services will struggle to meet this award without significant cuts elsewhere in their budgets, including redundancies.

"And utterly failing to recognise the outstanding effort of social care staff during the COVID-19 crisis is simply not acceptable. Councils like Newcastle City and the wider care sector must be properly funded.

"Since the early days of this pandemic, Liberal Democrats have been the first to argue for a better deal for NHS and care staff, yet Ministers seem to think that warm words and hand claps are sufficient. Boris Johnson should be ashamed for neglecting NHS and care staff again."