'Raise pay to end strikes', says Conservative peer

The government needs to "get real" and raise public sector pay to end strikes, a Conservative peer has said.

Lord Balfe, who advised David Cameron's government in a dispute over pensions and austerity measures, said union members were "not militants".

Instead, they are "wealth creators" with a valid claim about pay not keeping up with the rising cost of living.

The government was approached for comment.

Richard Balfe was David Cameron's envoy to the unions during a dispute over austerity and helped to sooth arguments over public sector pensions.

In an interview, Lord Balfe, who is also a former Labour MEP, told the BBC that the government needed to raise pay in the current financial year as well as the next.

While the government sets public sector pay, it gets advice on about half of that pay by review bodies.

These should look at pay with a view to an "interim award for this year", Lord Balfe said.

The government has consistently argued that paying public sector workers more could fuel the pace of price rises, and that it doesn't have the money to do it.

However, Lord Balfe said it should "get real".

"Realise that there are two sides of this argument," he added.

Strikers, including doctors, pilots and nuclear scientists "have a right to a decent standard of living", he said.

Lord Balfe, who is president of the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) said: "I personally have no difficulty in people who work hard earning well."

He added that strikers "help make our country prosperous".

Paying public sector workers more may mean inflation is higher for longer, "but that may be a price we have to pay for the money that was thrown around during Covid, and it's a price we have to afford to pay," he said.

"A sensible, cool approach is going to do us much more good," he said. "In the end, they [the government] will do far more damage to the economy by running it through a series of strikes than they will by settling."

He said spending "a few billion" on pay awards is "a case of common sense".

"You can't just cut workers living standards and expect them not to complain," he said.

The government is there to run society in the interests of its population, and it has to "talk to social partners, make it work", Lord Balfe added.

He also said Boris Johnson's strategy to confront the unions and Labour has "completely failed", in part because what the government has said about strikers is "just untrue".

Strikers are "not militants, they're rather fed up, and they want a government that will listen to them", he said

"The government needs to recognise that most of these people are the wealth creators and comfort creators of Britain, a health service, nuclear industry, and the like. And it's in their interests to have a peaceful, stable, democratic and happy country."

Lord Balfe, who is supportive of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, added that Mr Sunak "won't win an election unless he does" recognise that.