OXFORDSHIRE firefighters have hit out after the Government announced it may inflict a further pay freeze on public service workers.

Rishi Sunak, the UK chancellor, is likely to confirm the pay freeze in tomorrow’s spending review which would cover one year due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Firefighters, teachers, police officers and thousands of other public sector workers across the county will be affected, but it is expected that frontline NHS staff may be spared.

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Oxfordshire Fire Brigades Union says the move is ‘brutally unfair’ to key workers who have worked hard throughout the pandemic.

Its secretary Steve Wright said: “It is brutally unfair to penalise the key workers that have been on the frontline throughout this pandemic, it shows utter contempt for the very people that were being clapped earlier this year.

“In Oxfordshire we have seen the heroic work performed by our incredible NHS and care staff and the hundreds of key workers in both the public and private sectors, keeping the county and country running.

“They are trying to divide and rule, pitting public and private sector key workers against one another, NHS and non-NHS frontline responders against one another, but we won’t stand for it – we are all key workers.”

The union says it was public sector workers such as the fire service who were the first to step up above and beyond their normal role in order to support other agencies on the frontline in the fight against Covid-19.

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Firefighters took on 14 new types of work to respond to the first wave of the pandemic, including moving bodies, driving ambulances and delivering PPE, the union said.

In 2010 the public sector saw successive pay caps and real-terms pay cuts as a Government response to the global economic crisis.

Firefighters saw pay fall further and further behind the real cost of living as a result of Government austerity measures in response to the crisis.

In August, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said the national debt had hit more than £2 trillion, with the Government expected to borrow £372.2 billion in 2020/21.

This is to fund measures such as the furlough scheme, which kept the economy on life support during the pandemic.