Boris Johnson has said the Government had tried to give NHS staff “as much as we can” after recommending a 1% pay rise.
Speaking on a visit to a vaccination centre in Brent in north London, Boris Johnson said: “I’m massively grateful to all NHS staff and indeed to social care workers who have been heroic throughout the pandemic.
“What we have done is try to give them as much as we can at the present time.
“The independent pay review body will obviously look at what we’ve proposed and come back.
“Don’t forget that there has been a public sector pay freeze, we’re in pretty tough times.
“We’ve tried to give the NHS as much as we possibly can and that means, in addition to the £140 billion of annual money, we’ve got another £62 billion we’ve found to help support the NHS throughout the crisis.
“My gratitude is overwhelming and I’m so grateful particularly to the nurses, and thankfully we are seeing more nurses now in our amazing NHS – there are 10,000 more nurses this year than there were last year.”
Gavin Williamson said ministers had “put forward what we believe we can afford” for nurses during “difficult economic challenges”, after £400 billion of borrowing by the Government during its response to the coronavirus crisis.
He told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “What we all recognise is that this is a period of making sure we have restraint right across the public sector.
“We’re facing almost three-quarters of a million people who are unemployed and we have in the context of that decided to exempt the NHS from the public sector pay freeze, which is the only part of the public sector that has been exempted from that.”
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