'It's too dangerous': Jeremy Hunt refuses to rule out curbing nurses' right to strike

13 December 2022, 19:02 | Updated: 13 December 2022, 20:02

Jeremy Hunt has refused to rule out restricting nurses' right to go on strike, with as many as 100,000 NHS nurses set to walk out on Thursday over a pay dispute.

Asked by LBC's Andrew Marr on Tuesday whether he supported calls by Cabinet colleague Gillian Keegan to lengthen the list of public service workers barred from industrial action, the Chancellor said that "people in the services that we depend on for our life should commit to minimum services levels".

"In the end it’s just too dangerous for the public if we can’t be confident [in them]" he added.

Nurses, who are set to go on strike on Thursday and next Tuesday after the Royal College of Nursing's demands for a 19.2% pay rise were not met, may already be called back from the picket line to look after patients in immediate danger, according to reports.

Pressed by Andrew for more detail, Mr Hunt said that "the government will publish in due course what its plans are."

'Do you think nurses should be banned from striking?'

He added: I think at the moment what we would like to do is to find a way not to have these strikes, and because we recognise that the concerns of nurses in particular are very sincerely held.

"We understand why people are very angry with the high inflation levels - we also have our sincerely held position."

Read more: Thousands of patients to have operations cancelled, as nurses push ahead with strikes after pay talks break down

Read more: Andrew Marr: nurses' pay demands pose a genuine conundrum for top Tories'

Asked by Andrew if he thought the nurses' cause was "just", Mr Hunt replied: "I think it is fair to ask public service workers to guarantee minimum levels of service and we will make our proposals in due course.

"But I think the way to avoid the strikes that we have now is to say well let’s go through an independent process. And that’s what I hope will happen.

The NHS in Scotland avoided a nursing strike after agreeing a 7.2% pay rise for nurses, well short of the union's original demands. Asked by Andrew why the same could not be done in England, Mr Hunt said that "the Scottish NHS is independent from the English NHS… they make their own decisions."

He went on: "My judgement is the way we will resolve the sincerely held difference of opinion between ourselves and the Royal College of Nurses is to have an independent process that looks at the needs of taxpayers and the risks of locking in high inflation, the needs of nurses worried about their pay packets, and decides independently.

"We had that process last year and it gave public sector workers the highest pay rises for 20 years. Not comfortable for the government but we respected that process."

Mr Hunt's comments come after senior nurses warned that the strike could affect the health of patients. Some 6,000 people waiting for operations are likely to have non-urgent surgeries pushed back because of the strikes, with tens of thousands of more forced to reschedule appointments, including cancer check-ups.

Dame Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England, and her counterparts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, asked RCN general secretary Pat Cullen to consider the "concerns" of nursing leaders about the union's assumption "that night duty staffing on day duty is safe."

"This decision has the potential to significantly impact on the safety of patient care," they wrote.

They asked for assurances that nursing services providing "end of life care and good pain and symptom relief" continue in order to "alleviate unnecessary distress" for palliative patients.

They said they were "very concerned that people with the highest level of (mental health) need and staff teams managing the highest levels of risk will be kept safe" if mental health services are not exempt from industrial action. Chemotherapy is being rescheduled fro

Meanwhile, in a separate letter to the RCN, the national cancer director for NHS England urged the union to exempt urgent cancer surgery from strike action to "avoid patient harm".

Dame Cally Palmer wrote: "I know you will be anxious to ensure that this does not cause harm for people at a very vulnerable time as they prepare for, and undergo urgent cancer surgery...

"Our common aim is to ensure we do not cause harm to people undergoing vital cancer treatment to achieve cure or extension of life."

She urged the union to consider a national derogation for urgent cancer surgery "to ensure a consistent and compassionate approach for patients across the country".