Hundreds of thousands of health workers staged their first strike over pay in more than 30 years yesterday, saying they have had enough of being treated as "second class citizens".

Midwives, nurses, paramedics, ambulance staff, and hospital porters and cleaners mounted picket lines across England with other forms of industrial action to follow over the rest of the week.

Midwives were among those who went on strike first time in their lives. A noisy protest was held outside St Thomas' hospital opposite Parliament in Westminster. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt sparked anger by telling striking NHS workers that thousands of nurses' jobs would have to be axed to give them an across-the-board 1% wage rise.