Ministers appear to have have rejected the offer by Royal College of Nursing and Unison to call off NHS strikes if the Government opens serious discussions over pay
James Cleverly, The Foreign Secretary ,speaking on Sky News told Sophy Ridge that ‘pay negotiations are done through the independent pay review body’
Nurses are due to walk out on the 15th and 20th of this month
Cleverly said that people will still be able to rely on emergency services despite strikes
‘We are putting contingency plans in place. We will be working to make sure people are able to rely on emergency services’ he told the programme
Later on the Laura Kleunsberg show on BBC he insisted that the Government love the NHS, do not want nurses to go on strike but will not talk to the nurses, who have offered to cancel the strikes if the Government talks to them.
Meanwhile Wes Streeting, the shadow health Secretary says that the Government should agree to talks with NHS unions over pay adding that the offer is ‘too good to refuse’
‘It is completely unreasonable for the govt not to negotiate & I think they’re spoiling for a fight” he said adding that
‘Patients will rightly blame the Government and not unions’
Stephen Powys, Medical Director of NHS England, says Britain is entering a fifth wave of Covid
He says that the NHS’s recovery from previous waves could be ‘knocked off’ by industrial action
