Pay gap figures will add to nurses’ and teachers’ determination to strike

Recruitment will get harder and it will be a very tough spring if UK ministers persist in facing down the unions

No doubt nurses and teachers will be even more determined to strike later this week when they see how the pay gap between the public and private sectors persists in the latest official figures.

The Office for National Statistics said private sector pay increased by 7.2%, before adjusting for inflation, while the equivalent figure for the public sector was a meagre rise of 3.3% in the three months to the end of November.