Prime minister issues warning as nurses take action again today, with ambulance staff striking on Wednesday
Good morning. Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are on strike again today. And health chiefs are even more worried about the impact of another dispute tomorrow, when ambulance staff in England and Wales take industrial action.
Rishi Sunak is chairing cabinet this morning, and at 3pm he will take questions from the Commons liaison committee, probably for around 90 minutes. It will probably be the most extensive Q&A he has undergone since he became prime minister.
Sunak said the current round of strikes could go on for months. Asked if Britain could face months of strikes, Sunak replied:
Yeah. Look, I’m going to keep making the same arguments I’ve been making.
The government is acting fairly and reasonably and will always continue to do so. I’m going to do what I think is right for the long-term interests of the country – combating inflation.
He implied it was too late to improve the pay offer for the 2022-23 financial year. Groves reports:
[Sunak] flatly rejected reports that he was preparing a climbdown in his trial of strength with union leaders. The PM said it was too late to improve on pay offers in a financial year that was ‘basically finished’.
But Sunak implied that unions might get a more generous pay offer for 2023-24 if they called off strikes now. “Offering an olive branch to workers, [Sunak] hinted that next year’s pay round could be more generous if union members behaved responsibly now,” Groves reports. He goes on:
Mr Sunak said it was too late in the financial year to unpick the settlement – and suggested the unions should focus on making the case for an improved pay deal next year. ‘We do need to think about what’s the right approach for next year,’ he said. ‘Of course that’s a conversation we will have with the unions, with the pay review bodies, as we think about the right pay settlements.’
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