Health minister Nadine Dorries hints at possible U-turn over 1% NHS pay rise
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Health minister Nadine Dorries opened the door to a possible U-turn on NHS pay after a furious backlash over a proposed hike of just one per cent for doctors and nurses who have led the battle against Covid-19.
Former nurse Ms Dorries insisted that the offer for health workers was what the Government could afford but then suggested it could "move" on it.
She insisted that ministers recognised the "sacrifice, commitment and vocation" of health workers.
Speaking on Sky News, she added: "But the one per cent offer is the most we think we can afford which we have put forward to the pay review body.
"That will be discussed, then we will wait for feedback from unions and other health sector stakeholders, and see where we move to on this but the one per cent is what the Government can afford."
Later, Ms Dorries said the Government "would love to do more" but "at this present point in time it's been fighting the pandemic for the past year which has been a priority".
She added that no other public sector workers would be seeing a pay rise, telling the Today Programme: "No other public sector is getting any pay increase whatsoever and that's because we've had to prioritise, and the priority has been saving jobs, it's been furlough, protecting livelihoods, protecting people."
She also said she was "pleasantly surprised" when the one per cent pay rise was proposed.
Asked by BBC Breakfast what her reaction was to the news, Ms Dorries said: "I was actually surprised because I knew that we'd frozen public-sector pay, that no-one in the public sector was receiving a pay rise, so I was pleasantly surprised that we were making an offer."
Ministers have defended the proposal at a time when the economy was under "huge pressure" as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
But health service unions denounced the proposed award as a "kick in the teeth" for staff who had given "absolutely everything" over the past year to keep the public safe.
The Health Minister also insisted there would be "no cuts" to NHS budgets going forward.
Budget documents revealed there is a planned cut of £30 billion in day-to-day spending at the Department for Health and Social Care from April of this year, falling from £199.2 billion to £169.1 billion.
Ms Dorries said: "That £30 billion, I believe, was a reduction on the pandemic spending - there are actually real-time increases going into the NHS budget year on year.
"That figure, I'm afraid, is completely wrong - that's not on our annual funding of the NHS, that was on our pandemic budget, which is completely separate.
"There are absolutely no cuts moving forward to frontline NHS services either in waiting lists, accident and emergency. There are just no cuts moving forward - there are real-time increases going into the NHS budget."