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Too late to improve pay offers, says Sunak, as nurses strike again
Good morning. Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are on strike again today. And health chiefs are even more worried about the impact of another dispute tomorrow, when ambulance staff in England and Wales take industrial action.
Rishi Sunak is chairing cabinet this morning, and at 3pm he will take questions from the Commons liaison committee, probably for around 90 minutes. It will probably be the most extensive Q&A he has undergone since he became prime minister.
But if anyone expects him to open the door to an early resolution of the health service strikes, they are likely to be disappointed. Sunak gave an interview to the Daily Mail’s Jason Groves yesterday in which he warned the public to be ready for the long haul. Here are the key lines.
Yeah. Look, I’m going to keep making the same arguments I’ve been making.
The government is acting fairly and reasonably and will always continue to do so. I’m going to do what I think is right for the long-term interests of the country: combating inflation.
The government is doing everything it can to be responsible and put in place contingency measures to support people, but ultimately I will continue to urge the unions to call off the strike because that’s what is causing disruption to people’s lives, that is what is having an impact on their health.
[Sunak] flatly rejected reports that he was preparing a climbdown in his trial of strength with union leaders. The PM said it was too late to improve on pay offers in a financial year that was ‘basically finished’.
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But Sunak implied that unions might get a more generous pay offer for 2023-24 if they called off strikes now. “Offering an olive branch to workers, [Sunak] hinted that next year’s pay round could be more generous if union members behaved responsibly now,” Groves reports. He goes on:
Mr Sunak said it was too late in the financial year to unpick the settlement – and suggested the unions should focus on making the case for an improved pay deal next year. ‘We do need to think about what’s the right approach for next year,’ he said. ‘Of course that’s a conversation we will have with the unions, with the pay review bodies, as we think about the right pay settlements.’
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.
10am: NHS England, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, the GMB and the College of Paramedics give evidence to the Commons health committee about the ambulance strikes.
11.30am: Downing Street holds its lobby briefing.
11.30am: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.
After 12.30pm: MPs hold a debate on the forthcoming adjournment, which allows them to raise any topic they want.
3pm: Sunak takes questions from the Commons liaison committee.
I’ll try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Alternatively, you can email me at [email protected].
Key events
In his interviews this morning Will Quince, the health minister, said that the military personnel who are helping out when ambulance staff are on strike tomorrow will not be allowed to turn on blue lights when driving ambulances, or drive them through red lights. “They will be there to drive ambulances in a support capacity for individual trusts,” he said.
At the health committee hearing Dr John Martin, president of the College of Paramedics, told MPs that ambulance staff are now having to deal with “a sicker population who are calling us more often” than they were in the past. But, despite that, ambulance staff were seeing fewer patients per shift, he said, because of the delays getting people into hospital because of delayed discharges.
In the Commons the health committee has just started a hearing focusing on ambulance delays and strikes. There is a live feed at the top of the page.
There are four witnesses giving evidence: Prof Julian Redhead, national clinical director for urgent and emergency care at NHS England; Daren Mochrie, chair of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives; Rachel Harrison, national secretary of the GMB union; and Dr John Martin, president of the College of Paramedics.
More than 60 cross-party MPs have written to the Sun’s editor, Victoria Newton, to demand an apology and “action taken” against Jeremy Clarkson for a column where he said the Duchess of Sussex should be paraded through the streets naked, my colleague Jessica Elgot reports.
Mark Brown
The North East Ambulance Service, which covers Northumberland, Durham, Teesside and Tyne and Wear, has declared a critical incident as it struggles to cope with demand.
The incident was declared on Monday as “a result significant delays for more than 200 patients waiting for an ambulance,” the service said. There was also “a reduction in ambulance crew availability to respond because of delays in handing over patients at the region’s hospitals”.
Stephen Segasby, the service’s chief operating officer, said:
Our service is under unprecedented pressure.
Declaring a critical incident means we can focus our resources on those patients most in need and communicates the pressures we are under to our health system partners who can provide support.
We are asking the public to call us only in a life-threatening emergency. For all other patients, we are urging them to use www.111.nhs.uk, speak to their GP or pharmacist.
The declaration comes as NEAS also braces itself for strike action. Service bosses have urged the public to “use the service wisely” during the strikes on 21 and 28 December.
Health minister tells public to avoid ‘risky activity’ when ambulance staff are on strike tomorrow
Will Quince, the health minister, has been giving interviews this morning. He told BBC Breakfast that, because cover will be limited when ambulance staff go on strike in England and Wales tomorrow, people should avoid “risky” activities. He said:
Where people are planning any risky activity, I would strongly encourage them not to do so because there will be disruption on the day.
Quince did not give examples of what might count as risky behaviour.
RCN chief Pat Cullen says nurses will escalate strike in January if government does not offer better pay deal
Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, has been giving interviews this morning, as well as joining RCN members on a picket line in Newcastle.
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Cullen said that, if the government did not resolve the dispute, the RCN would escalate its strike action in January. She said:
If this government keeps giving our nursing staff the cold shoulder as they have to date then, it’s really unfortunate that, come January, we will see more hospitals being involved and striking and that means more nursing staff involved.
I want to say to the prime minister this morning, please step in now and do the decent thing on behalf of every patient and member of the public of this country.
But please do the decent thing also for nursing staff – get round the table and start to talk to me on their behalf.
That’s the only respectful and decent thing to do, and let’s bring these strikes to a conclusion.
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She refused to say whether the offer of an extra one-off payment might help to settle the strike. Steve Barclay, the health secretary, reportedly wanted to offer nurses a one-off lump sum, but was overruled by No 10. Asked if nurses would accept this, Cullen said nurses did not want “quick fixes”. They needed an in-depth review of the value of their work, she said. But she added: “That’s for us to discuss in a room, not on the airwaves.”
Too late to improve pay offers, says Sunak, as nurses strike again
Good morning. Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are on strike again today. And health chiefs are even more worried about the impact of another dispute tomorrow, when ambulance staff in England and Wales take industrial action.
Rishi Sunak is chairing cabinet this morning, and at 3pm he will take questions from the Commons liaison committee, probably for around 90 minutes. It will probably be the most extensive Q&A he has undergone since he became prime minister.
But if anyone expects him to open the door to an early resolution of the health service strikes, they are likely to be disappointed. Sunak gave an interview to the Daily Mail’s Jason Groves yesterday in which he warned the public to be ready for the long haul. Here are the key lines.
Yeah. Look, I’m going to keep making the same arguments I’ve been making.
The government is acting fairly and reasonably and will always continue to do so. I’m going to do what I think is right for the long-term interests of the country: combating inflation.
The government is doing everything it can to be responsible and put in place contingency measures to support people, but ultimately I will continue to urge the unions to call off the strike because that’s what is causing disruption to people’s lives, that is what is having an impact on their health.
[Sunak] flatly rejected reports that he was preparing a climbdown in his trial of strength with union leaders. The PM said it was too late to improve on pay offers in a financial year that was ‘basically finished’.
-
But Sunak implied that unions might get a more generous pay offer for 2023-24 if they called off strikes now. “Offering an olive branch to workers, [Sunak] hinted that next year’s pay round could be more generous if union members behaved responsibly now,” Groves reports. He goes on:
Mr Sunak said it was too late in the financial year to unpick the settlement – and suggested the unions should focus on making the case for an improved pay deal next year. ‘We do need to think about what’s the right approach for next year,’ he said. ‘Of course that’s a conversation we will have with the unions, with the pay review bodies, as we think about the right pay settlements.’
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.
10am: NHS England, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, the GMB and the College of Paramedics give evidence to the Commons health committee about the ambulance strikes.
11.30am: Downing Street holds its lobby briefing.
11.30am: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.
After 12.30pm: MPs hold a debate on the forthcoming adjournment, which allows them to raise any topic they want.
3pm: Sunak takes questions from the Commons liaison committee.
I’ll try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Alternatively, you can email me at [email protected].