UK unions question Starmer’s stance on education pay restraint

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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has been criticised by education union heads for failing to back their long-running pay disputes with the UK government or promise much greater investment in schools in England and Wales.

In a major policy speech on Thursday, the leader of the opposition declined to commit to a specific figure when asked if he would support a 6.5 per cent pay rise for teachers, ahead of a national strike on Friday.

The rise is expected to be recommended by the independent schoolteachers’ pay review body in the coming days.

Starmer instead claimed that, if he won the general election set to take place next year, he would settle the disputes — which began earlier this year — by holding talks “every day, every week, until they’re resolved”.

His party has also promised to offer teachers in the early stages of their careers a £2,400 bonus for staying in post for two years — at a cost of about £56mn.

Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers’ union, said it wanted to see a future government “committed to taking the action necessary” to end the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention.

The NAHT headteachers’ unions welcomed Labour’s proposals but warned that they had to be matched by “significant additional investment”.

“There is no doubt that schools can play a vital role in helping children to thrive no matter what their background, but they need the appropriate resources to do so,” said general secretary Paul Whiteman.

Britain’s public spending watchdog last week said that almost one in 10 pupils in England is studying in classrooms that require rebuilding or refurbishment following years of under-investment.

Meanwhile Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union, criticised Starmer for telling the BBC he was “very uncomfortable” about strikes by university academics.

“Today Keir Starmer was given an opportunity to show support for university staff engaged in industrial action but instead chose to undermine them,” she said, adding that he should “pledge to reform the funding model of higher education”.

Starmer mentioned neither the unions nor strikes in speech in Gillingham, Kent on “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”.

Labour’s leadership has largely stayed on the sidelines since public sector workers began a historic wave of walkouts amid rising living costs, partly because of the party’s pledge not to increase overall day-to-day spending in government.

Asked whether his hands would be tied by the dire public finances if he became prime minister, Starmer said: “We are going to inherit a very bad domestic economy . . . and we have to make very difficult decisions.”

Starmer used the speech to set out the last of his five so-called missions designed to form the “backbone” of his party’s election manifesto.

The others are: securing the highest economic growth in the G7 group of industrialised economies, making the UK a clean energy superpower, building a health service “fit for the future” and making Britain’s streets safe.

Starmer outlined various reforms he would push through as premier without significant public spending, although he would raise £1.7bn by scrapping the charitable status of private schools to fund certain pledges, including the hiring of 6,500 more teachers.

Starmer said he would set up a new training quango, Skills England, and replace the apprenticeship levy — which critics say gives employers a strong incentive to spend money on upskilling existing employees rather than hiring younger people. A new “growth and skills levy” would allow companies to spend 50 per cent of funds on non-apprenticeship training, such as modular courses and functional skills courses.

In addition, Labour would reform Ofsted and replace its current appraisal system, under which schools receive one of four judgments ranging from “inadequate” to “outstanding”, with report cards offering more detailed explanations of performance.