Tomorrow, staff at the Probation Office on Division Street will be protesting from 1-2pm over their pay. I’m glad to see NAPO and Unison members standing up for their working conditions at this protest across the country and in Sheffield. The Tories’ pay freeze has meant our public sector staff aren’t being rewarded for the important work they do, and it’s time that changed.

Probation staff have suffered enough under eight years of the Tories, including their failed part-privatisation, which has left private companies unable to manage the work despite receiving hundreds of millions of pounds of public money and repeatedly letting people down. Insulting offers on pay and allowances are just another blow, while staff workloads are becoming unmanageable.

The Labour Party is determined to end the pay freeze and give our probation officers the pay rise they so thoroughly deserve.