The health secretary has appeared to rule out a 10% pay rise for nurses, insisting the move is “not affordable”. It comes as Isabel Oakeshott called out nurses over their pay concerns leaving them unable to feed their families.
Pressed on whether a 10% pay increase for nurses was reasonable, Steve Barclay said: “Well 10% is not affordable, it would be an extra £3.6bn a year and obviously that would take money away from patient services, essential services that we need to invest in, given the backlogs from the pandemic.”
The health secretary continued: “I have discussions with the Treasury, as do other secretaries of state, and these things need to be balanced not just with the needs of teachers, with the education secretary, or train drivers, with the transport secretary, but also what’s affordable for your viewers in terms of their own cost of living pressures.”
It comes as Conservative MP’s comments that nurses using food banks were just not budgeting properly have been called “heartless” by a union.
Isabel Oakeshott told TalkTV said it is nonsense that senior nurses cannot afford to eat, as they continue to strike over pay: “You can buy food cheaply, you just have to adjust.”
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Ardern
Jacinda Ardern has said she has “no regrets” about her plans to quit as New Zealand leader, after a decision that shocked both supporters and critics.
A day after revealing she had “no more in the tank”, she said she was feeling a “range of emotions” from sadness to a “sense of relief”.
Isabel had her own thoughts on Ardern plan to step down.
She wrote: “Jacinda Ardern smirked as she imprisoned an entire population, telling them: “don’t talk to your neighbours.” A deeply sinister authoritarian masquerading as a liberal progressive. Good riddance!”
Related: World reacts as Jacinda Ardern resigns & you can imagine who is rejoicing – can we have her?
