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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%.

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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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Patient support divided on eve of nurses’ strike

Both sides in this dispute have had weeks to try and reach a settlement. But on the eve of the nurses strike their union the RCN and the Government have not moved any closer to resolution. The reverse in fact.

Steven Barclay, the Health Secretary says his door is always open. Pat Cullen, the RCN’s General Secretary said she walked through it and back out again when she realised there was talk about patient safety but none about a pay settlement.

Patient safety is now becoming a central theme and both sides are warning of a risk.

Steven Barclay says the industrial action could put patients at jeopardy so he is urging all patients to continue to seek emergency treatment if they feel they need it.

The nurses continue to argue patient safety is already being compromised in understaffed hospitals.

The nurses and the government know long term widespread patient support is crucial. So far, anecdotally at least, it seems to be fairly divided.

There is sympathy for the nurses but also, while so many people are struggling with the cost of living crisis, there is also an understanding of the Government’s economic case against an above inflation pay rise.

Because of the advance warnings NHS leaders have been able to manage attendance numbers by not booking in routine appointments on the strike dates. This will help hospitals on restricted staff rotas to manage patient flows.

But there will be disruption. That is the whole point of the industrial action.

Patient discharge is one of the biggest issues facing the NHS right now. There are too many patients in hospital who do not need to be there but have to stay because there is no social care prison for them.

So when the nurses who manage hospital beds, virtual wards and are in other capacity roles are absent because they are on strike that pressure will build even more.

Ambulances will keep bringing patients to hospital even on strike days. The challenge of finding beds for them all will become greater. The pressure on all sides , inside the NHS and in government will continue to build.

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.”

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

Representatives of dozens of climate vulnerable islands and African nations have stormed out of high-stakes negotiations over a climate funding goal.

Patience is wearing thin and negotiations have boiled over at the COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan, which were due to finish yesterday but are now well into overtime.

After two weeks of talks, the more than 190 countries gathered in the capital Baku are still trying to agree a new financial settlement to channel money to poorer countries to both curb and adapt to climate change.

Talks have now run well into overtime at COP29, but a deal now feels much more precarious.

The least developed countries like Mozambique and low-lying island nations like Samoa say their calls for a portion of the fund to be allocated to them have been ignored.

Samoa’s minister of natural resources and environment Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster is one of the representatives who walked out.

“We are here to negotiate but we have walked out… at the moment we don’t feel we are being heard in there,” he said on behalf of more than 40 small island and developing states, whose shorelines are being lost to rising sea levels.

More on Cop29

Shortly after he made a veiled threat of leaving COP29 altogether, saying: “We want nothing more than to continue to engage, but the process must be INCLUSIVE.

“If this cannot be the case, it becomes very difficult for us to continue our involvement here at COP29.”

Evans Njewa, who chairs a group of more than 40 least developed countries, said the current deal is “unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do.”

The last official draft on Friday pledged $250bn a year annually by 2035.

This is more than double the previous goal of $100bn set 15 years ago, but nowhere near the annual $1.3trn that experts say is needed.

Sky News understands some developed countries like the UK were this morning willing to bump up the goal to $300bn.

Developing countries are angry not just about the finance negotiations, but also on how to make progress on a pledge from last year to “transition away from fossil fuels”.

A group of oil and producing countries, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, have tried to dilute that language, while the UK and island state are among those that have fought to keep it in.

Mr Schuster said all things being negotiated contain a “deplorable lack of substance”.

He added: “We need to see progress and follow up on the transition away from fossil fuels that we agreed last year. We have been asked to forget all about that at this COP, as though we are not in a critical decade and as though the 1.5C limit is not in peril.”

“We need to be shown the regard which our dire circumstances necessitate.”

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

At least 11 people have been killed and 63 injured in an Israeli strike on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.

Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dug through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.

State-run National News Agency (NNA) said the attack “completely destroyed” an eight-storey residential building in the Basta neighbourhood early on Saturday.

Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed station also showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.

The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike
Image:
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike

Map of Lebanon and Israel

The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack – the fourth targeting the centre this week.

At least four bombs were dropped in the attack, security sources told Reuters news agency.

The blasts happened at about 4am (2am UK time).

A seperate drone strike in the southern port cuty of Tyre this morning killed one person and injured another, according to the NNA.

The blasts came after a day of bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs and Tyre. The Israeli military had issued evacuation notices prior to those strikes.

Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP

Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.

Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.

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US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.

Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.

According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israel has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000.

It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia’s ‘unstoppable’ missile – as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia's 'unstoppable' missile - as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will ramp up the production of a new, hypersonic ballistic missile.

In a nationally-televised speech, Mr Putin said the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was used in an attack on Ukrainian city Dnipro in retaliation for Ukraine’s use of US and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

Referring to the Oreshnik, the Russian president said: “No one in the world has such weapons.

“Sooner or later other leading countries will also get them. We are aware that they are under development.”

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Putin’s warning to the West

Russia war latest: Long-awaited US air defences arrive in Ukraine

He added: “We have this system now. And this is important.”

Detailing the missile’s alleged capabilities, Mr Putin claimed it is so powerful that using several fitted with conventional warheads in one attack could be as devastating as a strike with nuclear weapons.

More on Russia

General Sergei Karakayev, head of Russia’s strategic missile forces, said the Oreshnik could reach targets across Europe and be fitted with either nuclear or conventional warheads – while Mr Putin alleged Western air defence systems will not be able to stop the missiles.

Mr Putin said of the Oreshnik: “There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system. It is necessary to establish serial production.”

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Testing the Oreshnik will happen “in combat, depending on the situation and the character of security threats created for Russia“, the president added, stating there is “a stockpile of such systems ready for use”.

NATO and Ukraine are expected to hold emergency talks on Tuesday.

Meanwhile Ukraine’s parliament cancelled a session as security was tightened following the strike on Dnipro, a central city with a population of around one million. No fatalities were reported.

EU leaders condemn Russia’s ‘heinous attacks’

Numerous EU leaders have addressed Russia’s escalation of the conflict with Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying the war is “entering a decisive phase [and] taking on very dramatic dimensions”.

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Russia’s new missile – what does it mean?

Speaking in Kyiv, Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky called Moscow’s strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe”.

At a news conference, Mr Lipavsky gave his full support for delivering the additional air defence systems needed to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks”.

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