Sky Views: Can May afford NOT to give 999 heroes a pay rise?

Paul Kelso, Health Correspondent

In a hot, hateful summer, a common thread has run from the Manchester Arena to Finsbury Park, via London Bridge and Grenfell Tower: the commitment and courage of the emergency services.

The first paramedics to arrive in Manchester and at Borough Market walked into scenes of devastation, uncertain whether the attacks were over.

The prospect of secondary devices and the sound of gunfire did not deter them.

The police ran towards the same danger. At London Bridge unarmed officers confronted terrorists wearing suicide belts they could not know were fake.

At Finsbury Park they held back angry crowds, protecting the suspect in order that justice can take its course.

In west London, righteously angry crowds were sensitively policed as they protested.

Dozens of firefighters poured into the Grenfell Tower inferno, their first thought for those trapped above the flames rather than themselves.

The pictures of exhausted crews taking respite at dawn may be the defining image of the tragedy.

And as news of each fresh horror has broken, nurses, doctors and consultants have dropped what they were doing and headed for hospitals to await the injured.

All of them have exemplified the very essence of public service. Ask them why and they tell you it is "just" their job.

There is something else they share, alongside modesty, bravery and commitment: none of them has had a decent pay rise in seven years.

There is something else they share, alongside modesty, bravery and commitment: none of them has had a decent pay rise in seven years.

Public sector pay has been frozen, or increased by just 1% per year, since 2010. In the age of austerity the men and women we ask to teach our children, nurse us back to health, or haul us from fires, have borne the brunt of cuts.

In April the Government approved another 1% settlement. In May inflation was 2.9%. You do not need to be an economist to appreciate the squeeze.

So after a month that has highlighted how much we rely on the emergency services, it is time to question whether we can keep asking them to do it for less.

Public sector unions want to make sure it is one the Government cannot avoid.

Next week the Royal College of Nursing will launch a summer of protest, estimating that their members pay has fallen in real-terms by 14% in seven years, or around £3,000 a year.

At the NHS Confederation conference last week speaker after speaker identified a recruitment crisis fuelled in part by pay as their greatest challenge.

More powerfully, one of the firefighters at Grenfell Tower made a direct link with declining pay in a harrowing account of the scene.

The austerity orthodoxy was set by David Cameron and George Osborne, and there was no sign of a more generous settlement when Theresa May took over at No 10.

But since the Prime Minister tossed away her majority there are signs that may be changing.

Last week Jeremy Hunt adapted his loyal script to express sympathy for the nurses' case for a rise. He even promised to raise it with Chancellor Philip Hammond.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies there are 5.1m public sector workers, almost two-thirds of them employed in the NHS (1.6m) and education (1.5m), and last year they were paid £179bn, including pensions.

During the election campaign the Liberal Democrats proposed pegging pay rises to inflation, which the IFS says would cost £5.3bn. Labour's proposal for individual pay bargaining was costed at £9.2bn by 2022.

Perhaps cold calculation will continue to hold sway for a Conservative government that has been committed to shrinking the state, even if it means doing the same to the pay packets of those who work for it.

But might the political and moral case outweigh the economics?

For a Prime Minister on the run, criticised for lacking empathy and with a tin ear for the national mood, a proper pay-rise for the public sector would be a powerful and popular gesture.

Given the morale on the NHS front-line, and the grim likelihood they will have plenty more chances to display their commitment and compassion, Mrs May might also ask if she can afford not to.

For public servants we all rely on it would be the least they deserve.

Sky Views is a new series of comment pieces by Paste BN editors and correspondents, published daily at 9am.

Previously on Sky Views: Adam Parsons - Theresa May failed the leadership test