NHS pay revolt deepens as former Chief Whip calls for lower-paid and frontline staff to get more

Mark Harper said they should get a bigger share of the overall rise of just one per cent

(PA Wire)" />

The NHS pay revolt deepened today after a former Conservative Chief Whip called for lower-paid and frontline nurses to get more.

Mark Harper said they should get a bigger share of the overall rise of just one per cent, meaning that staff deemed to be not on the frontline would get a lower rise or a pay freeze.

“I don’t think senior managers and diversity and inclusion co-ordinators need to get big pay rises,” he told the BBC’s Westminster Hour. “Actually I’d focus the money on the frontline and those people who are lower paid and give them a bigger rise and perhaps others don’t actually get a rise at all.”

Speaker Lindsay Hoyle summoned a Health Minister to answer questions in the Commons today. Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “I’ll demand Matt Hancock and Tory MPs abandon their nurses pay cut.”

Labour issued an analysis for International Women’s Day showing three out of four NHS workers affected by pay row are women. “To give women on the NHS front lines a pay cut is just another example of how badly Boris Johnson’s government have consistently failed women,” alleged Marsha de Cordova, the shadow women’s secretary.

A Government spokesman said: “Pay rises in the rest of the public sector will be paused this year due to the challenging economic environment, but we will continue to provide pay rises for NHS workers, on top of a £513 million investment in professional development and increased recruitment.”

Independent pay review bodies are due to report in late spring and could recommend a different pay settlement.

The Prime Minister has insisted that the one per cent rise amounts to “giving them as much as we can”.

But Education Secretary Gavin Williamson sparked speculation of a U-turn yesterday when he called the offer “part of a process”.

Read More

Schools return and care home visits permitted as lockdown eased in England

Nazanin ‘still in harm’s way’ husband Richard Ratcliffe warns

PM’s road map: Key dates for reopening of schools, pubs and travel