Liz Truss backtracks on public sector wage cut in just 12 hours

Conservative leadership candidate Liz Truss has dropped her plans to slash the pay of public sector workers outside London and the South East after a massive backlash against the policies of Tory MPs.

Critics within her own party have accused the Minister of Foreign affairs plan to make millions of nurses, policemen and teachers poorer.

The Conservative Mayor of Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, who backs Ms Truss' opponent Rishi Sunak, said he was 'effectively speechless' when addressing party members choosing the next prime minister.

The proposal was a "ticking time bomb" that risked costing the party the next general election, he said.

The U-turn, just 12 hours after announcing the plans, is a blow to Ms Truss, widely seen as the favorite to replace Boris Johnson.

The policy, for regional wages boards to set wages according to the local cost of living, had been announced as part of plans for a 'War on Whitehall Waste' which would see the Treasury to save billions of pounds.

But within hours Ms Truss faced a furious backlash from Tory MPs from different parts of England.

Richard Holden, a member of the Class of 2019 Tory MPs and another Sunak supporter, said Ms Truss must immediately abandon plans which he said would 'kill' the government's leveling programme.< /p>< p>Steve Double – a Tory MP and Sunak supporter – added: 'This is a terrible idea and would be extremely damaging to public services in Cornwall. It is a leveling downwards and not upwards.

As they announced the U-turn, Ms Truss' campaign claimed there had been "deliberate misrepresentation" of the proposals.

A spokeswoman said. “Current levels of public sector compensation will absolutely be maintained. Anything that suggests otherwise is simply wrong. Our hard-working frontline staff are the foundation of the company.

But they added: "No proposals will be put forward on regional compensation commissions for civil servants or public sector workers."

This decision also provoked an angry reaction unions.

Prospect General Secretary Mike Clancy accused Ms Truss of planning "more of the same economically illiterate and insulting ideological nonsense that this government has produced in recent years".

Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA union, which represents senior civil servants, said: “As the government faces the enormous challenges posed by a new war on mainland Europe and recovers from the Covid backlog, what we need from a prime minister are solutions for the 21st century, not recycling the failed policies and tired rhetoric of the 1980s.”

Labour also said the idea would spell the end of the government's "race to the top" agenda, instead widening the regional income gap and creating a race to the bottom on public sector wages.

Andy Burnham , the Labor mayor of Greater Manchester, also warned i: "If this is serious policy, we will fight it tooth and nail".< /p>RecommendedConservative mayor 'speechless' over Liz Truss' plans to cut public sector wages