Labour and Lib Dems compete on public sector pay pledges

Andy Burnham promised no real-terms pay cuts for NHS staff and Nick Clegg pledged the same for all public sector workers, as Labour and the Liberal Democrats battled for votes.

The intervention by Labour's health spokesman came as the party tired to refocus public attention on the NHS, the party's strongest electoral suit, after days when speculation about the Scottish National party's role in a future administration has dominated the poll campaign.

Speaking at a debate in London, Mr Burnham accused Jeremy Hunt, health secretary, of failing to honour a 1 per cent rise for public sector workers that had been judged affordable by the independent pay review bodies.

The opposition health spokesman added: "Morale was already low but when that was reneged upon it sent it through the floor."

Asked if he could commit to no real-terms pay cuts for NHS staff, Mr Burnham said: "Yes, I can." He wanted "fairness in pay from the bottom to the top", he added.

Ed Miliband, Labour leader, had earlier promised to bring in extra money for the NHS, from a mansion tax and a levy on tobacco companies, "not in 2019, 2018, or in 2017 but in our first year in office".

He said Labour would launch an immediate recruitment drive to put 1,000 extra nurses into training this year as part of its plan to increase numbers by 20,000 by 2020.

Responding to Mr Burnham's pay pledge, Mr Hunt accused him of "totally unacceptable playing with politics over pay settlements". Rejecting the pay review body recommendation had been "the most difficult decision I've had to make as health secretary," he said.

Mr Hunt had been advised that accepting it would mean losing 6,000-14,000 nurses. It would have been "totally irresponsible" to press ahead, having received that warning, he argued.

Both Mr Hunt and Norman Lamb, Lib Dem health spokesman, acknowledged that pay restraint would have to be loosened in the next parliament.

Mr Hunt said: "Pay matters and we aren't going to be able to get those savings by freezing pay in the next parliament in the way we did at the start of this parliament."

Suggesting that Mr Burnham's pay pledge did not stack up, Mr Lamb asked "where, Andy, has this money suddenly come from"?

However, he acknowledged that a "significant element of the £18bn of so-called efficiency savings" achieved in the past five years had come from wage restraint.

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Separately, Mr Clegg announced on Tuesday that the Lib Dems would ensure employees in the public sector were "no longer subject to real-terms cuts in their pay from the first full year of the next parliament".

The party would issue guidance to public sector pay review bodies to ensure pay increases at least in line with inflation in 2016-17 and 2017-18.

After that it would make sure pay review bodies delivered an above inflation increase in public sector pay for staff "from teachers and nurses to social workers and police officers".

Mr Clegg added: "If you are a public sector worker worried Tory cuts threaten your job, or Labour's refusal to deal with the deficit means another year of pay cuts, then only a vote for the Lib Dems will guarantee you a fair pay deal."

Mark Serwotka, leader of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said: "The Lib Dems have spent five years with the Tories cutting the pay, pensions and jobs of public servants, so this Damascene conversion on the eve of electoral humiliation will be seen for what it is."

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