Thousands of Portsmouth teachers, police and military personnel face pay cuts

New analysis reveals the cut would hit over 23,000 key workers in Portsmouth – the nurses, teachers, police officers and armed forces personnel on the front line of the battle against Covid-19.

it comes after the government revealed it would increase NHS workers’ pay by one per cent.

But the chancellor also announced a ‘pay freeze’ for all other public sector workers earning above £24,000 in 2021-22. Those earning less than £24,000 were promised ‘a fixed increase of £250’.

Taking into account inflation over the next fiscal year, that means every non-NHS public sector worker earning over £18,000 will also get a real-terms pay cut.

In Portsmouth, this means 1,615 teachers will see their pay cut, as well as over 15,000 police officers in the wider region and over 90 per cent of the 38,000 armed forces personnel also based in the south east.

Stephen Morgan, Portsmouth South MP, said: ‘Our key workers and NHS heroes have kept our city going through this crisis, but instead of rewarding them, the Chancellor has hidden in the detail of his Budget a real-terms cut to their pay.

‘It is both a morally and economically irresponsible decision: if families have less money to spend, then our local businesses will suffer and only prolong Portsmouth’s recovery from this crisis.’

Boris Johnson said the pay agreement was ‘as much as he could give’.