Critics in her party accused the foreign secretary of planning to make millions of nurses, police officers and teachers poorer. Conservative Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen, who supports Ms Truss’s rival Rishi Sunak, said he was “actually speechless” on her pitch while party members chose the next prime minister. The proposal was a “ticking time bomb” that risked costing the party the next general election, he said. Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, also referred to Theresa May’s general election campaign when the former prime minister famously took aim at her proposals for social care – dubbed the ‘dementia tax’. “What if this basic mistake was made during an election campaign? 2017 all over again,” he said. “Bad judgement, lack of detail and a gift to Labour. I hope we will see a full u-tun and this policy abandoned.” The reversal, just 12 hours after she announced her plans, is a blow to Mrs Truss, who is widely seen as the front-runner to replace Boris Johnson. The policy, for regional pay boards to set wages in line with the local cost of living, had been announced as part of plans for a “war on Whitehall waste” that would save the Exchequer billions of pounds. But within hours Ms Truss faced a furious backlash from Tory MPs from across England. Richard Holden, a member of the 2019 recruitment of Tory MPs and another Sunack supporter, said Ms Truss should immediately scrap the plans which he claimed would “kill” the government’s leveling agenda. Steve Double – Tory MP and Sunak supporter – added: “This is a terrible idea and would be hugely damaging to public services in Cornwall. This is the level down, not up.” Ms Truss later claimed her suggestions had been misconstrued. He said: “I have never had any intention of changing the terms and conditions of teachers and nurses. But what I want to be clear about is that I will not go ahead with regional wage boards.” However, the notice sent by the Truss campaign made it clear that the proposed savings would only be achieved if the policy was applied to all public sector pay. The proposals had provoked an angry reaction from the unions. Prospect’s general secretary, Mike Clancy, accused Ms Truss of planning “more of the same economically illiterate and offensive ideological nonsense that this government has been spewing in recent years”. Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA union, which represents senior civil servants, said: “As the government faces the huge challenges posed by a new war on continental Europe and recovers from the delays of Covid, what we need from a Prime Minister they are solutions for the 21st century, not recycled failed policies and tired rhetoric from the 1980s.” TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady welcomed the reversal saying that “in the midst of a cost of living crisis, the first priority for our next Prime Minister should be to increase wages”. Labor also said the idea would echo the government’s “flattening” agenda, rather than widening the regional income gap and creating a race to the bottom on public sector pay. Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Truss supporter, told Sky News that the debate around the policy had focused on civil servants and that it was “not the plan at the moment” to cut pay for the rest of the public sector.
