'Ridiculous': James O’Brien rejects caller's suggestion that nurses shouldn't get pay rises
15 December 2022, 13:58 | Updated: 15 December 2022, 14:21
James O'Brien schools this caller who argued against nurse pay rise
This caller attempted to justify the reason behind Rishi Sunak not wanting to negotiate a pay rise with nurses, James O'Brien wasn't having any of it.
One of James O’Brien’s callers tied himself in knots in a persistent attempt to explain why nurses should not receive a pay rise in line with inflation.
James said that during yesterday's PMQs Rishi Sunak was unable to answer why he hadn't sat down to negotiate with the Royal College of Nursing.
This caller told James he "respectfully" disagreed with him stating that the Prime Minister “did answer the question”.
“The nurses were already given a pay rise last year when the public sector pay was frozen”, Ola in South Kensington explained, reiterating the point the Prime Minister made.
James pointed out: “You know what’s happened to inflation since then, and you know what the rationale is for the industrial action this year.”
Ola replied: “Yeah, but if everybody gets the pay rise that they seek then we’re just going to go into an inflationary spiral.”
“Yeah but they didn't get the pay rise that they sought in Scotland, they got roughly half”, James shot back.
After a pause, Ola said: “Fair enough.”
James said: “We’ve just established that the rationale for this year's industrial action has nothing to do with last year’s economic situation - and everything to do with this year's economic situation.”
Inflation dropped yesterday to 10.7 per cent from a 41-year high of 11.1 per cent last month.
The caller attempted to defend his explanation by comparing the pay negotiations with the war in Ukraine.
“Zelenskyy said the starting point is we’re talking about our 2014 borders, that’s where we come to the negotiation table.
“The government is simply saying we’re not going to have a conversation where the starting point is 20 per cent. We said four per cent, let's start from there", he said firmly.
James, visibly shocked by the analogy, said: “I don't think that made any sense at all...we’ve established that some of the stuff you’ve said was silly.”
The caller then said Rishi Sunak needed to put a cap on inflation “somewhere, somehow”, but that the nurses are “loveable” and so the Prime Minister cannot tell them that.
James pointed out that this was now a completely different point from what he raised at the start.
Laughing, Ola said: “Fine, you got me, James.”
In a savage end to the call, James concluded: “It is ridiculous that you would regurgitate these talking points when even the most cursory examination proves how ridiculous they are.”
This comes after the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer asked Rishi Sunak yesterday why he would not “open the door and discuss pay” to “resolve” the first nationwide nurses’ strike in the 106-year history of the Royal College of Nursing.
'Nurses going on strike is a badge of shame for this government.'
— LBC (@LBC) December 14, 2022
Sir Keir Starmer says there is a 'human cost' to the Prime Minister 'playing games with people's health'.#PMQs | https://t.co/Q8LkG3U10f pic.twitter.com/2m1Ud0lsAy
