NHS unions reach pay deal after government offers 5% rise
NHS unions have reached a pay deal with the government in a major breakthrough that could herald the end of strikes by frontline staff in England.
The offer consists of a one-off payment of 2% of their salary for the current financial year 2022/23 and a 5% pay increase for 2023/24.
It will apply to key NHS workers including nurses and paramedics but not junior doctors, who are involved in a separate dispute over pay and conditions.
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Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the deal means a newly qualified nurse will get more than £1,800 this year on top of a pay rise of more than £1,300 next year.
He said: “I hugely admire the incredible work of NHS staff, including during the pandemic and the progress they have made to tackle the resulting backlog.
“This offer will give nurses, paramedics, physiotherapists and other non-medical staff a fair pay rise while protecting our commitment to halve inflation.”
The offer will now be put to union members for a vote, with industrial action paused during that process.
The Royal College of Nursing, GMB and Unison said they will recommend their members accept the offer – but Unite said it was not good enough.
The unions represent a wide variety of health staff including nurses, paramedics, 999 call handlers, midwives, security guards and cleaners.
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PM ‘delighted’ on NHS pay settlement
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, said the decision ultimately lay with members and strikes will be paused while they are consulted on the deal.
But she added: “The offer from government is not one that Unite can recommend to our members.
“It is clear that this government does not hold the interest of workers or the NHS at heart. Their behaviour and disdain for NHS workers and workers generally is clear from their actions.
“Britain has a broken economy and workers are paying the price.”
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NHS strikes have forced govt into action due to waiting time targets
It looks like the government could be on the brink of a breakthrough with striking NHS workers, who will now vote on the latest pay offer.
For months, ministers insisted that they could not budge on pay because they needed to prioritise the public finances and did not want to risk rising wages fuelling inflation.
But that position seems to have softened over the past few weeks and now we see the purse strings have been loosened and some extra cash has suddenly been found.
So why the shift?
Whilst it appeared that Number 10 were – in the early stages – willing to tough out industrial action across a range of sectors, the longer it goes on the more political damage it does.
Day-to-day strikes are disrupting the public in many aspects of their lives, from getting to work to getting vital NHS treatment, and the finger of blame always tends, in the end, to point to those in power.
But the walkouts in the NHS have also created a very specific political problem for the prime minister who has made reducing waiting lists one of his five key pledges – a target he will not be able to hit whilst workers are on the picket line.
So, it is no surprise that this is the area that has been the focus of the most intense negotiations.
Ministers will now be hoping that if a deal is done with this sector others will follow and they will be able to tell voters that broken Britain is slowly but surely getting fixed.
‘Extra 2.5bn put on table’
Other unions were more welcoming of the agreement, even as they acknowledged it was “far from perfect”.
Unison said the one-off payment is worth £1,655 for staff at the bottom of band two (for example porters, cleaners and healthcare assistants), £2,009 for staff at the top of band five (nurses, midwives, physiotherapists), £2,162 at the top of band six (paramedics, health visitors, senior occupational therapists) and £3,789 for staff at the top of band nine.
Rachel Harrison, GMB National Secretary, said the offer is a “huge uplift for the lowest paid to keep them well above the Real Living Wage” as she called the offer “reasonable”.
She said the deal was reached after the government agreed to put an extra £2.5bn on the table to fund the pay increases.
“GMB members should rightly be proud of themselves. It’s been a tough road but they have faced down the Department of Health and won an offer that we feel is the best that can be achieved at this stage through negotiation,” Ms Harrison added.
She said progress has also been made on non-pay demands, such as addressing violence in the workplace.
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‘It is a decent sum of money’ says Head of Health at UNISON Sara Gorton.
Nursing staff ‘vindicated’
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Pat Cullen, also welcomed the agreement, saying: “The government was forced into these negotiations and to reopen the pay award as a result of the historic pressure from nursing staff. Members took the hardest of decisions to go on strike and I believe they have been vindicated today.”
It is not clear how the pay rises will be funded, with the government previously saying money for wage increases would have to come out of the budget for frontline services.
When questioned on this Mr Barclay deferred to the Treasury, saying only that it “would not come from areas of the budget that impact on patients”.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also insisted frontline services will “absolutely not” be affected by the pay deal to end strikes but would not say how the package will be funded.
Pressed during a visit to a south London hospital on whether patient care would be hit, the prime minister said: “Absolutely not. We’re going to be making sure we protect all frontline services with £14bn of more funding we announced at the end of last year.”
He said the deal is “fair and reasonable” and recognises the “fantastic” work NHS staff do while being affordable for the taxpayer.
“It’s a good example of this government getting things done and delivering for the British people,” he said.
Junior doctors are not part of the deal offered by the health secretary
Ambulance members of Unison and Unite were due to strike next Monday and physiotherapists were going to walkout later this month but the action has been called off
Other strikes involving nurses and paramedics were paused earlier this month after the government finally agreed to talk about pay.
At the heart of the dispute was a demand for an increase for the current financial year, which ministers initially insisted was not affordable.
Tens of thousands of nurses, paramedics and other healthcare staff went on strike just before Christmas, then again in January and February.
Last month, the government finally agreed to talk about pay, averting several planned walkouts that would have seen thousands more operations cancelled.
The British Medical Association, which represents junior doctors, has called on Mr Barclay to meet with them tomorrow to discuss pay, following a 72-hour walkout earlier this week.
Leaving school aged 16, pregnant and with no qualifications, Angela Rayner has had a meteoric rise to the second-highest office in the UK – and a spectacular fall from grace.
Sir Keir Starmer’s right-hand woman has now resigned after she admitted to Sky News political editor Beth Rigby she had not paid enough stamp duty on a second home she bought in Hove, East Sussex, earlier this year.
Politics latest: Angela Rayner resigns
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Rayner admits she didn’t pay enough tax
Growing up in poverty on a council estate in Stockport, Greater Manchester, Angela Bowen (her maiden name) and her two siblings were brought up by her grandmother, as her mother had bipolar disorder. She has said they had no books because her mother could not read or write.
She left school at the age of 16, without any qualifications, after becoming pregnant and has said her son, Ryan, “saved me from where I could have been, because I had a little person to look after”.
The teenage mother, now 45, studied part-time and gained a qualification in social care, working for Stockport Council as a care worker.
She entered politics when she was elected as a Unison trade union representative and then convenor of Unison North West – the region’s most senior official, becoming a Labour Party member during her time there.
Angela Rayner in 2016, a year after becoming an MP
She married Unison official Mark Rayner in 2010 and they had two sons, Charlie and Jimmy. Charlie, now 17, was born at 23 weeks old and is disabled.
In 2017, her eldest son Ryan had a son, making Ms Rayner a grandmother at the age of 37. She gave herself the nickname “Grangela”.
She and her husband separated in 2020 and their divorce was completed in 2023. Since 2022, she has been in a relationship with former Labour MP Sam Tarry, with a break in 2023.
Pic: PA
NHS compensation and a trust
Days before her resignation, she revealed compensation was paid to Charlie by the NHS due to the circumstances around his birth, which left him with “life-long disabilities”.
A trust was set up to manage the compensation and to ensure her son was properly looked after, and so that he and his brother could remain living in their family home in Ashton-under-Lyne as part of a “nesting arrangement”, where children of divorced parents live in one house while parents take it in turn to stay there.
She said she sold her stake in that home to the trust in January this year and used that money as a deposit on the Hove flat.
The Labour MP said she was given legal advice that the coastal flat did not have to be considered as a second home for stamp duty but sought further legal counsel after media reports claimed she avoided £40,000 in stamp duty.
Her initial lawyers said they never gave her tax advice and said they were being made “scapegoats”.
Ms Rayner gave a tearful interview to Sky’s Beth Rigby before her resignation, telling the Electoral Dysfunction podcast she had spoken to her family about “packing it all in”.
MP to Labour deputy in five years
Ms Rayner rose up the Labour ranks quickly after becoming an MP for Ashton-under-Lyne in 2015.
She was made deputy Labour Party leader in 2020 and was made deputy prime minister and housing, communities and local government secretary after last summer’s general election.
A self-described socialist, “but not a Corbynite” (in her own words), she became well known for calling the Conservatives “scum”, for which she eventually apologised after initially refusing to.
Pic: Reuters
Council house and donor controversies
During last summer’s election campaign, Ms Rayner was investigated by Greater Manchester Police over allegations she misled tax officials in the sale of her council house in 2015 under the right to buy scheme.
She was cleared of any wrongdoing and HMRC concluded she did not owe any capital gains tax. She accused the Tories of using “desperate tactics” against her and went on to win her seat with a 19.1% majority.
Not long after becoming deputy PM and housing secretary, she was embroiled in another scandal in which she was accused of failing to properly register her use of Labour peer Lord Waheed Alli’s $2.5m New York apartment and being given clothes worth £3,550 by him.
She later announced she would no longer accept clothes from donors.
Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner during a visit to a construction site in Cambridge. Pic: PA
Building pledge
One of the Labour government’s biggest pledges was to build 1.5m new homes in this parliament and, as housing secretary, this came under Ms Rayner’s remit.
Sir Keir admitted in December the pledge might be “a little too ambitious”.
Ms Rayner was warned by some of the UK’s biggest developers there was not enough skilled labour to get anywhere near that target, but she has insisted it will happen.
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‘House building target is achievable’
She also led the charge to overhaul planning rules, announcing planning officers would be able to rubberstamp development proposals without permission from council committees if they complied with locally agreed plans.
The changes will be made through the planning and infrastructure bill, which was introduced to parliament in March and is making its way through the Commons.
It also promises to unblock 150 infrastructure projects, such as gigafactories, windfarms and railways, while protecting the environment and nature by setting up a fund to help builders meet their environmental obligations faster by pooling contributions to fund larger nature protections
Right to buy
In February, somewhat controversially given she bought the council house she grew up in, Ms Rayner announced it would be harder for tenants to buy their own council homes to help reverse the housing stock shortage.
She also announced “Awaab’s Law” – introduced by the Conservatives in 2023 and named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died from damp and mould – would come into force in October 2025, forcing social housing landlords to fix dangerous damp and mould in a set amount of time and emergency hazards within 24 hours.
In her role as deputy PM, Ms Rayner occasionally stood in for Sir Keir at Prime Minister’s Questions, one time facing Tory Oliver Dowden and saying it was the “battle of the gingers”.
The Duchess of Kent has died at the age of 92, Buckingham Palace has said.
Katharine – who became the oldest living member of the Royal Family when Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022 – was known for consoling Wimbledon finalists, notably a tearful Jana Novotna in 1993.
A skilled pianist, organist and singer, she dropped her HRH style, preferring to be known as Mrs Kent, and retreated from royal life to spend 13 years teaching music at a primary school in Hull.
The duchess famously comforted emotional Wimbledon runner-up Novotna after the 1993 final. Pic: AP
The palace said in a statement on Friday: “It is with deep sorrow that Buckingham Palace announces the death of Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent.
“Her Royal Highness passed away peacefully last night at Kensington Palace, surrounded by her family.
“The King and Queen and all Members of The Royal Family join The Duke of Kent, his children and grandchildren in mourning their loss and remembering fondly The Duchess’s life-long devotion to all the organisations with which she was associated, her passion for music and her empathy for young people.”
The Union Flag at Buckingham Palace was lowered to half-mast as a mark of respect shortly after the duchess’s death was announced. A formal framed announcement is displayed on the palace railings.
Katharine meeting Nelson Mandela in 1998. Pic: PA
The duchess, who volunteered for Unicef, is greeted in northern India in 1996. Pic: PA
An online condolence book will be available in the coming days and funeral details will be announced in due course.
Katharine married Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent – who is the cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II – in a grand ceremony at York Minster in 1961.
The couple have three surviving children, George, Earl of St Andrews, Lady Helen Windsor, and Lord Nicholas Windsor.
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Angela Rayner resigns
Three Britons among Lisbon crash fatalities
The Duke and Duchess of Kent at their York Minster wedding. Pic: PA
The duchess suffered heartbreak when she was forced to have a termination after catching German measles while pregnant in 1975. Two years later, she endured the devastation of giving birth to a stillborn son, Patrick.
She led a separate life from the Duke of Kent for many years but the couple did not divorce – and were said to be closer than ever after Edward suffered a stroke in 2013, which prompted his wife to move back into their Kensington Palace home.
Katharine’s famous Wimbledon moments
Her appearances at Wimbledon, where she presented the winners’ trophies, became a familiar feature of the summer sporting calendar.
Venus Williams receives the women’s singles trophy from the duchess in 2001. Pic: Reuters
In 1993, she put royal formalities and protocol aside to hug tearful runner-up Jana Novotna after she lost the ladies’ singles final to Steffi Graff.
Her relationship with Wimbledon authorities later soured, when she was refused permission to take the young son of murdered headmaster Philip Lawrence into the royal box at the tournament.
Three British nationals are among the 16 who died after the iconic Gloria funicular in Lisbon derailed and crashed, authorities have said.
The crash, which also left 22 people injured, happened at around 6pm on Wednesday.
Footage showed one of the railway’s two carriages practically destroyed and emergency workers pulling people out of the wreckage.
Read more
Everything we know about the Lisbon crash so far
So far, the nationalities of 11 of the people who died have been released by the authorities. They are: five people from Portugal, including four workers at a charity based near the funicular, three from Great Britain, two from Korea, and one person from Switzerland.
Brakeman Andrew Marques is the only person killed to have been identified so far.
All but one of the victims was declared dead at the scene, with the other dying of their injuries in hospital.
Sky News has contacted the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for further information on the three British victims.
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he is “deeply saddened” to hear of the British nationals who have died.
“His thoughts are with families and those affected,” they said. “We stand united with Portugal during this time.”
Emergency workers scramble to rescue people at the scene. Pic: Enex
Majority of dead and injured foreign nationals
Among the injured are 12 women, seven men, and a three-year-old child, according to Portugal’s Civil Protection Authority.
Three who suffered injuries are from Portugal, two from Germany, one from Spain, one from Korea, one from Cape Verde, one from Canada, one from Italy, one from France, one from Switzerland, and one from Morocco.
According to CNN Portugal, the two from Germany were the three-year-old child and his mother, who were both pulled from the wreckage.
The lower carriage in the foreground with the remains of the one that crashed further up the hill in Lisbon. Pic: AP
The Gloria funicular connects Lisbon’s Restauradores Square to the Bairro Alto viewpoint
The Gloria funicular is hugely popular with tourists and classified as a national monument.
Its journey between Restauradores Square in downtown Lisbon and the Bairro Alto neighbourhood is just 265m (870ft) and three minutes long, but climbs up a steep hill, with two carriages travelling in opposite directions.
It was believed to be operating at full capacity as rush hour began in the Portuguese capital on Wednesday evening when the top car hurtled down the hill, left the tracks, and crashed into a building 30m (98ft) from the bottom.
According to the people who were in the lower carriage, a few metres into their ascent, it started going backwards. When they saw the other car speeding towards them, they jumped through the windows to escape.
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Lisbon funicular crash: ‘We felt no brakes anymore’
Preliminary crash report due on Friday
It is not clear what caused the crash.
The Portuguese government office for air and rail accident investigations said it has completed its analysis of the crash site and will release a preliminary report on Friday.
One eyewitness who was in the lower carriage told Sky’s Europe correspondent Alistair Bunkall that the brakes appeared to fail.
Engineer Dave Cooper told Sky News on Thursday that the two carriages may have become detached from one another because of a fault with the cables.
The second carriage is lifted from the crash site to be removed overnight on Thursday. Pic: Reuters
The funicular tracks empty after both carriages were removed overnight on Thursday. Pic: AP
Flowers for the victims at the foot of the hill where the funicular is in downtown Lisbon on Friday. Pic: AP
Emergency services and engineers worked throughout the night on Thursday to remove both carriages from the site, while the other two funiculars in the city remained closed until the crash investigation concludes.
A mass was held, attended by Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro and Lisbon mayor Carlos Moedas, in memory of the victims at a nearby church on Thursday evening.
Lisbon declared three days of municipal mourning, while Portugal observed a national day of grief on Thursday.
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