BORIS Johnson today dropped a fresh hint that pay review officials will look again at NHS pay rises – saying they would be considered “exceptionally” after their hard work in the pandemic.
The PM insisted the country, himself included, owed a lot to the hard work of NHS staff in the past year.
They are expected to get just a one per cent pay rise next year – but all over public sector staff have had theirs frozen.
Inflation is just 0.7 per cent now – but experts expect this to rise next year meaning it may effectively be a cut.
The move has sparked a furious backlash from Labour and the unions demanding a change of heart, with some considering strike action.
Politicians have this week hinted the door may be open to extra cash.
The PM said this lunchtime the Conservatives were now the “party of the NHS”, adding: “We owe a huge amount to our nurses an incalculable debt.
“We have a massive debt as a society, and I personally to the nurses of our NHS and that’s why we’ve asked the public sector pay review body exceptionally, to look at their pay.
“We will look at what the independent peer review body has to say exceptionally about the nursing profession whom we particularly particularly value.”
He added that nurses salaries had experienced a 12.8 per cent pay rise over the last three years – with 10,000 more nurses in the NHs and 60,000 now in training.
But Labour boss Sir Keir Starmer blasted that nurses pay had fallen in real terms over the last decade.
He raged over the fact that former aide Dominic Cummings was given a 40 per cent pay rise, and that the PM has spent £2.6 million of taxpayers’ money on a Downing Street TV studio.
Sir Keir accused him of broken promises, adding: “Now he’s asking NHS nurses to take a real term pay cut. How does he justify that?”
And he accused Boris Johnson of clapping for carers last year before choosing to “shut the door in their face at the first opportunity”.
The pay review body won’t report back on how much they think NHS staff should get until later on this spring.
Earlier this week the PM had defended the one per cent rise – but since then several ministers have suggested there may be some wiggle room.
The Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said at the weekend that the offer was “part of a process” but added “no one wants to see a industrial action.”
