Nurses ‘will continue to strike in January without pay negotiations’, warns RCN leader
Nurses will continue to strike in January if the government does not negotiate with them on pay, union leader Pat Cullen has told Sky News.
Ms Cullen, of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said it was “absolutely not true” that pay is a “tiny element” in the dispute as she hit out at “disparaging” remarks made by health minister Maria Caulfield.
She told The Take with Sophy Ridge: “Nurses are on the breadline, they can’t afford to pay their bills, some of them can’t even afford to travel to work for goodness sake. And yet you have a minister sitting here saying that it’s about all of the other things and not about pay. That is absolutely not true.”
Ms Caulfield, who is also a nurse, told Sophy Ridge that while pay is “obviously a concern” this was only a “tiny” reason for the strike action, which she claimed was more about working conditions.
But Ms Cullen said that while there are working conditions that need to be addressed, there are 50,000 nursing vacancies across the NHS and “pay is fundamental if we are going to try and keep the nurses we have and get more in”.
Nurses are set to strike for the first time in a century on Thursday in bid to secure above-inflation pay rises, after talks to avert the action ended in a deadlock on Monday.
Stephen Barclay, the health secretary, is refusing to negotiate with unions on pay because the government has accepted recommendations made by the NHS Pay Review Body (PRB) to give below inflation pay rises of around 4%.
Moments before Ms Cullen came on air, the GMB union – which represents tens of thousands of health workers who are also due to strike – announced it was pulling out of the process used by the government to set NHS pay.
‘Trust lost in pay review process’
The NHS Pay Review Body is an advisory public body which takes evidence from government and unions before recommending a pay increase.
The government say it is “independent”, but the GMB disputes this and is suspending its participation until “substantial reforms are made”.
That means the union, which represents thousands of ambulance workers, paramedics, nurses and cleaners working in the NHS, will refuse to provide evidence to the board during next year’s pay negotiations.
“The credibility of the Pay Review Bodies is under greater strain than at any point in their 50-year history. Our members want to participate in a meaningful process, but the trust has been lost,” the union said.
The union said the PRB is not independent because ministers and government:
• Set the Review Bodies’ annual remits including the financial limits within which they are expected to work
• Appoint the Pay Review Body’s members – a process unions have no role in
• Provide the PRB’s secretariat
More strikes in 2023
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Sir Keir Starmer told Rishi Sunak the nurses’ strike was a ‘badge of shame’
Because of the PRB recommendations, nurses with the RCN have been offered a pay rise of at least £1,400.
But the union says this is not enough to make up for a decade of real-terms pay cuts, and they are asking for a pay rise of 5% above RPI inflation, so 19.2%.
The government has said that figure is “unaffordable” and Ms Cullen would not say what offer the RCN would accept if ministers were willing to negotiate.
“I am not going to negotiate on the airwaves and I don’t think any minister should reduce our profession to having to do that,” she told Sophy Ridge.
While nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will strike tomorrow, the RCN has paused industrial action in Scotland to consider a revised pay offer of 7.5%, after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon agreed to negotiations.
Ms Cullen said more strikes were likely in January if the government sticks by its refusal to come to the table on pay.
“The ball is in their court quite frankly, there will be a second strike day on the 20 December.
“Unless we have talks and negotiate on behalf of my members – then I am afraid to say that’s a very strong possibility. We will be starting to look at when those dates will be. I am afraid they will continue into January.”
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On the eve of the strike, Mr Barclay repeated his insistence that increasing the nurses’ pay offer would mean taking money from frontline services.
He added: “Our nurses are incredibly dedicated to their job and it is deeply regrettable some union members are going ahead with strike action.
“My number one priority is to keep patients safe – I’ve been working across government and with medics outside the public sector to ensure safe staffing levels – but I do remain concerned about the risk that strikes pose to patients.
“Nevertheless, the NHS is open and patients should continue to seek urgent medical care – and attend appointments, unless they’ve been contacted by the NHS.”
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
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