![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/jeremy-hunt-slaps-down-nurses-pay-rise-plea-as-tories-brand-it-unreasonable/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Jeremy-Hunt-visit-to-St-Georges-Hospital.jpg&description=The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt rejected calls for a 17.6% pay rise for NHS staff after years of freezes and real-terms cuts, despite admitting the NHS is on the brink of collapseJeremy Hunt visiting a hospital during his days as Health Secretary in 2017Jeremy Hunt today slapped down striking nurses' plea for a pay rise as his health chief branded it "neither reasonable nor affordable". The Chancellor rejected calls for NHS staff to get 5% on top of RPI inflation, which is running at 12.6%, after years of Tory freezes and real-terms pay cuts. He said: 'We have to recognise a difficult truth that if we gave everyone inflation-proof pay rises, inflation would stay, we wouldn't bring down inflation.' And his health secretary, Steve Barclay, said the Royal College of Nursing's demands were "neither reasonable nor affordable'. Nurses at scores of NHS trusts have voted to strike in England for the first time in the union's 106-year history after being offered around £1,400 or 4%. Mr Barclay is "saddened" by the proposed industrial action by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which he said is in "nobody's best interests". Nurses will be going on strike after the first vote of its kind in their union's 106-year history (file photo) ( PA) But he claimed the pay award "is a balanced increase", which is "fair for nurses and the taxpayer". He wrote in the Sunday Telegraph: "Yet the RCN is demanding a massive pay rise of 17.6%; an increase that is simply neither reasonable nor affordable. "It is about three times the average settlement that millions of hard-working people, including many Sunday Telegraph readers, working outside the public sector will typically receive. "Huge settlements like these would turbocharge inflation when we are endeavouring to keep it under control. "It will have an adverse impact on people's incomes in the long run." Mr Barclay wrote his door "will always be open" to the unions, following a "constructive" meeting with RCN general secretary Pat Cullen in W){kind=link}
The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt rejected calls for a 17.6% pay rise for NHS staff after years of freezes and real-terms cuts, despite admitting the NHS is on the brink of collapse
Jeremy Hunt today slapped down striking nurses’ plea for a pay rise as his health chief branded it “neither reasonable nor affordable”.
The Chancellor rejected calls for NHS staff to get 5% on top of RPI inflation, which is running at 12.6%, after years of Tory freezes and real-terms pay cuts.
He said: “We have to recognise a difficult truth that if we gave everyone inflation-proof pay rises, inflation would stay, we wouldn’t bring down inflation.”
And his health secretary, Steve Barclay, said the Royal College of Nursing’s demands were “neither reasonable nor affordable”.