BRITAIN needs a proper pay rise, unions demanded today as new official data showed that the real value of median pay has not increased after more than a decade of Tory rule.

The TUC’s call came ahead of tomorrow’s Budget and Spending Review, and after ministers refused to guarantee that public-sector workers will get a real-terms wage rise despite Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s promise to end their pay freeze.

Annual pay figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that, in the 12 years from 2009 to 2021, the real value of median pay has not increased, and has only just returned to its 2009 value.