Drop 'crazy idea' nurses will accept 3% pay increase, former Health Secretary Alan Johnson urges government

9 January 2023, 18:40 | Updated: 9 January 2023, 19:10

By Kieran Kelly

@kellyjourno

Alan Johnson has urged the government to drop the "crazy idea" that nurses will accept a 3% pay increase and said a one-off payment presents an "opportunity" to solve the pay dispute.

Former Health Secretary Mr Johnson told Andrew Marr Tonight that the government's idea that unions would accept a 3% pay rise "was never going to work".

Nurses walked out for the first time in 105 years in December, amid a pay dispute. Nursing union leaders came into negotiations asking for a 19% pay rise, arguing that their members' salaries had been eroded by inflation, although demands have reportedly come down since then.

Speaking to Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC, Mr Johnson said: "If Steve Barclay the Health Secretary actually gets the unions in and starts talking to them, that's got to be the first step and sets aside this crazy idea that they're going to accept this NHS Pay Review recommendation.

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"This is a 7% pay cut in effect for nurses. It was never going to work. They're going to set that to one side."

Mr Johnson also said unions should see a one-off payment paid to nurses as an "opportunity".

He continued: "If I was sitting on the union side, I'd see that as an opportunity. What they would want is a lump sum on top of a percentage pay increase for this year.

"They wouldn't want it all to be lump sum. They'd want some to be consolidated into their pay and built on over the future. But an element of the two."

Mr Johnson, who served as health secretary between 2007 and 2009, also urged the government to work cross-party to find a consensus to solve the adult social care crisis.

He told Andrew: "There's got to be a long-term plan, agreed across the political parties. So, it's not something that is there for two years and then changes with a change of government for adult social care.

"And that will do an awful lot to free up finance and resource in the NHS, they need to recruit staff as well, which is another part of the pay issue."

Looking at the overall state of the NHS, Andrew asked Mr Johnson whether he is a fan of Labour shadow health secretary Wes Streeting's plans for the NHS, including his proposal to ban the sale of cigarettes.

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Mr Streeting has said the Labour party will consult on a package of measures, including a New Zealand-style gradual ban on tobacco.

The government in Wellington introduced a law last year to raise the minimum age to buy cigarettes every year, meaning anyone born after 2008 is effectively banned.

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Mr Johnson said: "I think our philosophy always was that if you do all these things, banning advertising, stop smoking in public places, eventually that would happen naturally.

"Now actually, the level of smoking has come down to an extraordinary level. I would on balance, tend to leave it there, tackle those other dragons that are out. Slay those other dragons."