EDUCATION unions will ask their members to vote in favour of the government’s “final” pay offer after Prime Minister Rishi Sunk accepted recommendations from pay review bodies.

Mr Sunak challenged union leaders to call off planned strike action after offering public-sector workers pay rises of up to 7 per cent, including a 6.5 per cent increase for teachers in England.

Junior doctors, who began their longest walkout yet in England today, will receive 6 per cent rises, along with an additional consolidated £1,250 increase.

Hospital consultants, set to strike in England next week, will also receive a 6 per cent rise.

Police and prison officers will see a boost in wages of 7 per cent.

The pay award for teachers will be “fully funded,” the government said, with £525 million of additional money for schools in 2023-24 and a further £900m in 2024-25.

The government set out some changes to raise around £1 billion of additional money to fund the rises, including increasing the immigrant health surcharge to £1,035.

But the bulk of the money will have to come from existing budgets.

Mr Sunak said that “it’s not about cuts” but about departments “reprioritising.”

He insisted “no cuts will need to be made” in schools.

The PM and Education Secretary Gillian Keegan along with the leaders of the four education unions issued a joint statement setting out how the agreement could end strike action.

“ASCL, NAHT, NASUWT and NEU will now put this deal to members, with a recommendation to accept the STRB [School Teachers’ Review Body] recommendation,” the statement said.

The unions said that actions by their members had compelled the government to make the offer.

NASUWT general secretary Dr Patrick Roach said: “While pay restoration remains a key priority for our members, we have also been clear to the government that tackling workload and excessive working hours must also be a priority.”

NEU joint general secretaries Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney said: “There is still much more to do to ensure that teachers are properly rewarded, workload reduced, and schools properly funded.

“Should the offer be accepted by members, the NEU will continue campaigning and negotiating with the DfE to ensure improved working conditions for teachers and an improved education system for children and young people.”

But Prospect general secretary Mike Clancy said the government was “taking a knife to public services to pay for these pay rises,” showing “they have learned nothing from the austerity years.”

“For a Prime Minister and Chancellor who came into office promising economic stability, the chaotic handling of this process will inspire little confidence in workers worried about their futures during the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.”

And Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the government is putting departments “between a rock and a hard place.”

She said: “They now have to choose between paying workers a half-decent salary or cutting services in already underfunded public services.

“If the government wanted to, it could well afford to pay public-sector workers properly, while maintaining and indeed improving funding for schools and hospitals.

“It could start by looking at the money made by profiteering companies that have been driving up inflation.”

Praxis, which supports migrants and refugees, said raising “already eye-wateringly high” visa fees risks seeing people fall “deeper into poverty and insecurity.”

Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz, the organisation’s policy and public affairs manager, said migrants in Britain pay some of the highest costs in Europe.

“Instead of treating people who were born outside the UK as cash cows to be tapped when the need arises, the government should be doing everything it can to get control of the cost-of-living crisis and ensure that every household has the support they need,” she said.