PUBLIC-SECTOR workers’ unions were angered today after reports of the government’s “last-gasp” attempt to curry favour with an austerity-hit workforce through a meagre pay rise for teachers, police officers and other employees emerged.

The Treasury is reportedly set to unveil the biggest public-sector wage increase for six years — worth £2 billion — after years of pay caps.

It would affect two million workers and any announcement would reportedly come just before Theresa May leaves Downing Street.

Police officers are set to receive a pay rise of 2.5 per cent, soldiers 2.9 per cent and teachers and other school staff 2.75 per cent, while dentists and consultants will get 2.5 per cent and senior civil servants 2 per cent, according to the Times newspaper.

Public-sector pay rises were capped at 1 per cent after the Conservative-led coalition came to power in 2010 until this was scrapped last year.

General union GMB described the pay boost as a “selective handout,” while shadow chancellor John McDonnell slammed it as an “insulting pay offer.”

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said: “Millions of hard-working public servants will not be fooled by this last-gasp attempt by a failed government and a failed Prime Minister to curry favour with an austerity-hit workforce that has had to deliver essential services against the backdrop of savage cuts.”

She also noted that the below-inflation pay rise, which would exclude nearly two thirds of public-sector workers, will not be funded by new money.

Unison assistant general secretary Christina McAnea said that Ms May only seems concerned about her “legacy” and not by a “genuine desire to repair damage” done by the Tory governments’ austerity agendas over nearly a decade.

She said: “Any extra money must be for all public servants, and the government must stump up the extra cash for any pay increase.”

Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “It is outrageous that the vast majority of civil servants, who do some of the most important jobs in society, are once again being left behind on public sector pay.”

National Education Union joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said that any announcement at the very end of the school term would be “incredibly inconsiderate to headteachers planning for next year, and to teachers who just want to know where they stand.”

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said it would be “a national scandal” if the Royal Fleet Auxiliary — the Royal Navy’s supplies lifeline — is left out of the pay rise.