Giving in to nurses on pay would ‘stoke’ inflation and have ‘huge impact’, says minister

Published

3 years ago

December 18, 2022

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Giving in to nurses’ pay demands would “stoke” inflation and have a “huge impact” on public finances, a minister has told Sky News.

Oliver Dowden said he would “dearly love for the government to be able to write the cheque” and meet the call of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which wants a pay rise of at least 17%.

But he said the government remains “resolute” and repeated a claim that giving in to public sector unions over pay demands would cost every household an extra £1,000 a year.

Challenged on the numbers he presented – as independent forecasters have predicted much lower inflation of 5.5% next year – Mr Dowden said “that’s a totally different proposition”.

But he said it was right for the government to follow the recommendations of independent pay review bodies, who suggested a pay rise for nurses of around 4% over the summer – before inflation soared – to “take the politics out” of the discussion.

Nurses took the first strike action in their history this week when they staged a walkout on Thursday, with another set for Tuesday and more possible in 2023 if their demands are not met.

The head of the RCN, Pat Cullen, suggested the strikes could have been called off if the government moved over the pay settlement.

But so far, Health Secretary Steve Barclay has refused to put wages back on the table in negotiations, sticking to the pay review’s recommendation.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Dowden said: “I would love to be able to sit here now and say to you and say to all of your viewers – and particularly say to those nurses – we will give you a 19% pay rise.

“The reason why that can’t be done is because of the costs to public finances.

“This is not my money. It’s not the government’s money. It’s your viewers’ money that is being spent [and] as government ministers, we have to balance up very difficult choices.”

He added: “We’re trying to be reasonable in relation to this. However, we do have to balance off the wider public considerations in that in relation to this. This is what you would expect ministers to do in this kind of scenario.

“And I have to say to the union leaders, we will continue to reasonable, but we also must be resolute in terms of protecting the wider public finances.”

With strikes set for every day in the run-up to Christmas, from railway workers to Border Force officials and beyond, Mr Dowden urged all unions to call off industrial action “to give people a break over Christmas”.

But his tone was quite different to that of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who today accused union bosses of being the “Grinches [who] want to steal Christmas”.

Writing in The Sun on Sunday, Mr Sunak made no mention of nurses or ambulance drivers, who are also set to go on strike.

But he singled out rail workers as “causing misery for millions” with what he said were “cruelly-timed” walkouts.

Labour’s Stephen Kinnock called the PM’s language “incendiary”, telling Sky News the government is “spoiling for fight” with the unions.

“I think the government needs to stop all the rhetoric, the empty posturing and sowing the seeds of division and actually now needs to start finding a constructive solution so that we can get people back to work in a way where they feel valued and where they feel that there is a real future for them in those jobs,” he added.

Armed Forces ‘no substitute’

Meanwhile, union chiefs and senior military officials have raised concerns about plans to bring in the Armed Forces to fill in the gaps caused by industrial action, specifically replacing ambulance drivers and Border Force staff.

Sara Gorton, Unison’s head of health, warned the military is “no substitute” for qualified ambulance staff, while Nathan Holman, from GMB, said bringing in “untrained” personnel would be a “hindrance” rather than a help.

And the head of the armed forces, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, warned it was “perilous” to expect military personnel to be used routinely to cover for strikes.

Mr Dowden said the government had “significant concerns” when it came to the ambulance driver strikes and again urged the unions to call them off.

He added: “We are working incredibly hard to make sure, particularly in the most urgent cases, people are able to get that ambulance.

“But the only way we can remove all of this impact, the only way is this to be called off. This is not a situation that we want to be in.”

World

Israel silences more crucial reporting voices from inside Gaza

Published

21 mins ago

August 11, 2025

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Israel silences more crucial reporting voices from inside Gaza

The targeted killing of Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif and four other colleagues by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) late on Sunday silences more crucial reporting voices from inside Gaza.

The IDF wasted no time in releasing a statement claiming it had “eliminated” Al-Sharif, calling him a “terrorist” who “posed” as a journalist for Al Jazeera.

Gaza latest: Follow live updates

The Committee to Protect Journalists warned in July that Al-Sharif was the victim of an Israeli smear campaign and that they feared for his safety.

The IDF had previously released documents which they say proved his involvement with Hamas.

No word from them on his colleagues – Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa – who they also killed. We are chasing.

Al-Sharif’s death – and that of his four colleagues – is a chilling message to the journalistic community both on the ground and elsewhere ahead of Israel’s impending push into Gaza City.

There will now be fewer journalists left to cover that story, and – if it is even possible – they will be that bit more fearful.

This is how journalists are silenced. Israel knows this full well.

It has also not allowed international journalists independent access to enter Gaza to report on the war.

Al-Sharif’s death has sent shockwaves across the region, where he was a household name. He was prolific on social media and had a huge following.

I was watching horrifying footage of the immediate aftermath of the strike in the taxi on my way into the bureau, and the driver told me how he and his family had all cried for Anas when the news came in.

His little daughter cried because of Al-Sharif’s little daughter, Sham, who she knew from social media.

“They call everyone Hamas,” my taxi driver said. “Men, women, children”.

Last month, Al-Sharif wrote this post: “I haven’t stopped covering [the crisis] for a moment in 21 months, and today I say it outright… and with indescribable pain.

“I am drowning in hunger, trembling in exhaustion and resisting the fainting that follows me every moment… Gaza is dying. And we die with it.”

This is what journalists in Gaza are facing, every single day.

World

Israel’s PM tries to get on front foot in propaganda war he knows he is losing

Published

6 hours ago

August 11, 2025

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Israel's PM tries to get on front foot in propaganda war he knows he is losing

Israel’s prime minister added more detail to his deeply controversial plans for military escalation in Gaza at a news conference with foreign media yesterday – despite the condemnation of the UN Security Council, which met in an emergency session and urged him to rethink.

Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “fairly short timetable” to establish designated “safe zones” for the one million or so set to be displaced from Gaza City.

He also vowed to seize and dismantle Hamas’s final strongholds there – in the central refugee camps, and in al Mawasi, along Gaza’s southwestern coast.

This, per Netanyahu, is the only way to destroy the terror group, which he claimed “subjugates Gazans, steals their food and shoots them when they try to move to safety”.

Al Mawasi is already home to a significant displaced population, most of whom live in tents cramped up against the Mediterranean Sea, in what is already a designated humanitarian zone.

If members of Hamas live among them, rooting them out will be hugely complicated and will involve significant civilian casualties. If the residents of Gaza City can’t evacuate south to al Mawasi, where will they go?

Netanyahu’s plan is to set up more aid distribution sites through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and to flood Gaza with food.

He claimed his policy was not one of forced starvation – describing particular photos of starving babies as “fake news”, and accusing the media of painting a false picture.

“The only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages,” the prime minister claimed.

I asked Netanyahu how he would go about preventing the kinds of daily killings taking place at aid distribution points in the months since GHF has been operating.

Doctors Without Borders has described these incidents as deliberately orchestrated.

The prime minister said increasing the amount of aid heading into the Strip was the answer.

“And by the way, a lot of the firing was done by Hamas seeking to have a response by our forces,” he added. “And very often they didn’t, they held back. They stayed their own fire even though their own lives were on the line.”

This was Israel’s prime minister trying to get on the front foot in a propaganda war he acknowledged he was losing. He was loath to admit the presence of famine in Gaza.

It took two questions before he acknowledged there was “deprivation”, even if he would not be drawn on whether his 11-week total blockade of the strip earlier this year had played any role.

He recognises that the appalled response of the international community to the human cost of this war, and the accusations of war crimes and genocide which Israel so vehemently rejects, are a terrible look.

This was his attempt to reclaim the narrative.

World

Defiant Netanyahu sets out plan for military escalation in Gaza – and describes photographs of starving babies as ‘fake news’

Published

13 hours ago

August 10, 2025