PM Accused Of Delusion Over NHS Pay As Thousands Strike

A health union leader has described Rishi Sunak as deluded for suggesting that NHS staff should abandon their campaign to secure a bigger pay rise this year.

- Denis Campbell, Kiran Stacey, Rachel Hall

The GMB’s national secretary, Rachel Harrison, made the remark in response to Downing Street’s insistence that it would not talk about improving the 1,400 pay award for frontline personnel for 2022-23, even though it has triggered the wave of NHS strikes.

The spat blew up yesterday, the day tens of thousands of nurses and ambulance staff staged an unprecedented joint stoppage in the biggest strike in NHS history.

The prime minister’s official spokesperson said Sunak wanted to look ahead to the pay deal for 202324 and not backwards”.

Asked what the plan for ending the escalating series of walkouts was, the spokesperson reiterated the government’s position that large pay rises would risk fuelling already rampant inflation.

“But we do want to find a path forward. We think the right way to do that is to talk about the 2023-24] pay offer prior to evidence being submitted to the pay review body.”

Pressed on whether unions should give up hope” of negotiating on pay levels for 2022-23, the official said: I think we would say we want to keep talking about ways forward.”

Unions responded furiously and accused Sunak of trying to ignore the key reason for nurses, ambulance staff and paramedics staging stoppages since 15 December.