Senior Tories call for nurses pay to be looked at after thousands go on strike

Thousands of nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland took part in the largest industrial action in the history of the NHS, involving around a quarter of all hospital trusts and community teams.

However, Downing Street said that there are “no plans” to look again at the pay deal for workers.

This is despite calls from senior Conservatives that the Government should act over low pay for nurses.

Jake Berry, the former Tory chairman who was sacked by Rishi Sunak, said that the Government will “have to improve its offer” to the Royal College of Nursing.

“We need to find a way as a Government, and the union does too, to get to that centre point, that point of agreement straight away,” he told Talk TV.

Meanwhile, Steve Brine, the Tory chairman of the Commons Health Committee called on ministers to ask the NHS pay review body to rethink their recommended pay rise.

“I think the way out is to protect the integrity of the process, go back and ask them to look again,” he told the BBC’s World At One programme

“Everyone needs to cool it and I think sending it back to the pay review body to have a look would be a sensible answer.”

Pressed if movement on pay from the Government could resolve the situation, Mr Brine said: “I would agree. That’s the elegant way to make that movement.”

Dr Dan Poulter, a former health minister, told the Guardian ministers should improve its offer on the table to nurses as inflation has “significantly eroded real-terms pay since the review bodies made their recommendations earlier in the year”.

Health minister Maria Caulfield said around 70,000 appointments, procedures and surgeries will be lost in England due to the strike.

She cited the disastrous Liz Truss mini-budget as evidence for why borrowing cannot be used for spending to pay for a bigger pay rise for nurses.

“We know the impact of borrowing when governments can’t afford it, we saw that just a few weeks ago”, she said.

Ms Caufield also agreed that patients will suffer, people will be in pain and health outcomes may diminish during the nursing strike.

She told Sky News: “That is an inevitable action of strike action and that’s why it’s with regret we see that the RCN are going out on action today.”

Royal College of Nursing chief executive and general secretary Pat Cullen said: “When the Government closes their door and turns their backs on the nursing profession they turn their back on patients, and that’s what’s happened here today.

“I have made every attempt to get into a room with (Health Secretary) Steve Barclay and to talk to him about nurses’ pay and to try and have those issues addressed, and he has refused to do that.

“He has brought me into meetings and talked about anything else but nurses’ pay.

“He has closed his books and walked away and not put one extra brown penny on the table for these brilliant nurses.”

But Mr Barclay appeared to rule out any movement during a visit to London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Pressed on whether he is willing to discuss pay with the RCN, Mr Barclay said: “We’ve been clear that we have an independent process and that is the process we followed.”

He has repeatedly said the Government is sticking to the recommendations of the independent pay review body, which said nurses should get a pay rise of around £1,400.

The RCN has been calling for a pay rise at 5 per cent above inflation, though it has indicated it would accept a lower offer.