OTLEY'S MP has addressed a Paycap Rally in Leeds.

Mr Sobel (Lab, Leeds North West) was one of six speakers at the event, held outside Leeds Art Gallery last week.

Condemning the public sector pay cap that was implemented in 2010, he called on the Government to ‘give Britain a pay rise'.

He said: "The pay freeze came alongside the slowest growth in the economy for generations and resulted in a pay squeeze that hurt the families of nurses, police officers, social workers, fire fighters, teachers and prison officers.

"As politicians, we ask people to work on the front line caring for our elderly relatives, educating our children and keeping our communities safe.

"They deserve nothing less than to be paid properly.

"After seven years the Tories have finally lifted the paycap but, like most things with this Government, this weak Government, it is less than a half measure.

"Firefighters have only been offered a 2 per cent increase which, in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster is frankly an insult to those who risk their lives every single day.

"Teachers have been offered a measly one per cent. With ever increasing workloads and pressures, this is not going to be enough to stop the floods of good qualified professionals leaving the profession in their droves."

He added: "Many of the staff that keep Leeds' public sector services going travel in from their homes in outlying areas such as Otley and Yeadon.

"Not only are they facing real term pay cuts but also rising costs in transport, increasing traffic congestion and air pollution due to this Government's failure to tackle transport infrastructure in the north.

"Make no mistake, these pay cuts were not done in the national interest.

"They were an ideological assault on the many for the benefit of the few."