Government hint at u-turn over 1% pay rise for nurses after major backlash and strike threat

MINISTERS could u-turn on the 1% pay rise offer for nurses amid threats of strike action, Gavin Williamson hinted following a major backlash. 

The Education Secretary said the offer was “part of a process”, adding “no one wants to see a strike” – but moments later Boris Johnson said he had “tried to give them as much as we can.”

Mr Williamson stressed NHS workers the only part of the public sector to see any rise this year because of a “period of restraint” sparked by £407 billion of pandemic spending.

Mr Williamson said on Sunday morning TV that that the Department of Health had “put forward what we believe we can afford” for nurses during “difficult economic challenges”.

He stressed teachers and others in the public sector will face a pay freeze, with NHS staff the only group to be exempted following their efforts during the crisis.

Speaking on a visit to a vaccine hub in North London shortly after, the PM added he was “massively grateful to all NHS staff” adding “what we have done is tried to give them as much as we can.

But Labour have branded the offer “reprehensible” and nurses unions are mulling a walk out.

Mr Williamson told Sky News: “What we all recognise is that this is a period of making sure we have restraint right across the public sector.

“We’re facing almost three-quarters of a million people who are unemployed and we have in the context of that decided to exempt the NHS from the public sector pay freeze, which is the only part of the public sector that has been exempted from that.”

And speaking to the BBC he left the door open to a climbdown, adding: “We’ve put forward what we believe we can afford and is part of a process and that is what will be looked at.”

But Labour frontbencher hit back Lisa Nandy said the rise recommended by ministers to the independent pay bodies amounts to a “real-terms pay cut” as it will be outflanked by inflation.

IT’S REALLY ‘A CUT’

The opposition say a newly-qualified nurse earning a £24,907 salary would face a real-terms cut to the tune of £174 if the rise goes ahead. 

Ms Nandy told Sky News: “The Government, to be clear, is not planning a pay rise.

“That is a real-terms pay cut because it doesn’t keep up with inflation, and for nurses to be offered a pay cut is just reprehensible in our view.

“We think nurses deserve a pay rise this year and that should never have been something that was up for negotiation – this is a Government that has completely got its priorities wrong.”