Rishi Sunak resists pressure from senior Tories to negotiate with nurses on pay to avert strikes

The prime minister has stuck by the pay deal recommended by the NHS pay review body in July

Rishi Sunak has refused to bow to pressure from health leaders and some senior Conservatives to negotiate pay with nurses to prevent strikes in the health service from escalating.

The prime minister acknowledged that soaring bills are squeezing household finances, but did not say the government would negotiate on pay with the nursing union to avert further strikes.

This is despite four Conservative former ministers having urged him to back down, amid suggestions that asking the NHS pay review body to rethink their recommended deal could be a way out.

Mr Sunak, however, has continued to defend the pay offer made to nurses in England, emphasising it has been centred around recommendations by an independent pay review body.

"The government has accepted in full the recommendations of an independent pay review body which sets pay or makes recommendations to the government," Mr Sunak told UTV.

"And even when those recommendations were higher than what the government had initially suggested and indeed higher than what many people in the private sector were receiving, the government in the interests of being constructive, of being reasonable and being fair accepted them in full."

"But our door is always open. The health secretary has been consistently clear about that and I hope we can find a way through."

Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will walk out again on Tuesday without a breakthrough after the Royal College of Nursing’s (RCN) first national action on Thursday. Thousands of routine operations were cancelled but polling suggests the nurses’ action was being backed by the public amid a wave of industrial action. Mr Sunak and Health Secretary Steve Barclay were sticking by the pay deal recommended by the NHS pay review body in July and refusing to negotiate on salaries.

What has been recommended as a pay rise to nurses?

Nurses were recommended a £1,400 raise, which is estimated to be an average of a 4.3% raise for qualified staff. The RCN has been demanding a pay rise of around 19% but has indicated it is willing to accept a lower offer if ministers agree to negotiate. It requested a rise at 5% above the RPI measure of inflation, which was running at 7.5% when they submitted their request to the pay review board in March. But inflation has since soared, with RPI standing at 14.2% in September amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Conservative chair of the Commons Health Committee Steve Brine has argued that inviting the pay review body to look again would be a sensible way of averting further strikes. Former Conservative Party chair Sir Jake Berry called for the government to negotiate on pay, telling Times Radio: “Machismo and sort of chest beating and ‘we’ll take the unions on’ doesn’t work. You only get these things sorted out by talking.” Dr Dan Poulter, a former health minister, argued ministers should up their offer because “inflation has significantly eroded real-terms pay” since the proposals. Meanwhile, former justice secretary Robert Buckland told the PoliticsHome website “there must be a middle way” between the government’s offer and the union’s demands. RCN leader Pat Cullen warned that action by nurses would escalate unless ministers back down on their refusal to negotiate on pay.

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know