Sunak warned UK public services will need £43bn a year to ‘stand still’

TUC says vital services had been left short-staffed and overwhelmed after over a decade of austerity

Rishi Sunak's government has been warned that Britain's creaking public services will require at least 43bn a year in additional funding just to stand still" amid the fallout from soaring inflation.

The Trades Union Congress said next week's autumn statement needed to protect both public services and workers' pay from the highest rates of inflation since the early 1980s to avoid a further collapse in the quality of support for health, social care, education, justice, and the environment.