NHS pay: Sophy Ridge tells Gavin Williamson ‘U-turn is coming’

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Greater Manchester Police said the 61-year-old woman was issued with the fixed penalty notice for breaching Covid-19 rules on public gatherings. A 65-year-old woman was also arrested at the protest in Manchester city centre today after refusing to leave the scene and failing to provide details when asked. She later provided her details to officers and was de-arrested but given a £200 fixed penalty notice.

Officers were met with a degree of non-compliance and it was necessary to issue fixed penalty notices

Superintendent Caroline Hemingway

Police said the demonstration against the pay proposals was attended by about 40 people.

Superintendent Caroline Hemingway said: “With the positive step of schools reopening tomorrow, it is vital that people continue to follow Government legislation on social distancing and avoid gathering illegally in large numbers.

“Regardless of one’s sympathies for a protest’s cause, we would ask the public to maintain social distancing and follow legislation to prevent a rise in infections and provide the best possible chance of a further easing of restrictions in the weeks to come.

“We sought to engage with and peaceably disperse those attending this afternoon’s protest, explaining that the gathering was in contravention of Government lockdown rules.

“Unfortunately officers were met with a degree of non-compliance and it was therefore necessary to issue fixed penalty notices.”

Nurses and NHS workers from the campaign group NHS Workers Say No, and Unite’s Guys and St Thomas Hospital Union branch, also held a protest outside Downing Street against the proposal.

The Royal College of Nursing has condemned the award as simply “not good enough”, stating that nursing staff, many of whom would have been working on the frontline during the pandemic, are “skilled professionals deserving of fair pay”.

An Opinium poll carried out on Friday and Saturday suggested as much as 72 percent of the population think the wage recommendation is too low, including 58 percent of Tory voters.

But Boris Johnson today insisted the Government had tried to give NHS staff “as much as we possibly can”.

Speaking during a visit to a vaccination centre in Brent, north London, the Prime Minister 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.”

Royal College of Nursing (RCN) chief Dame Donna Kinnair accused Mr Johnson of “failing to understand the situation” and said his pay defence would lead to nurses leaving the profession.

She said: “When there are already tens of thousands of unfilled nurse jobs in the NHS, he’s pushing more to the door this weekend.”

Labour labelled the NHS pay recommendation “reprehensible”, and argued that a 2.1 percent wage increase had been budgeted and legislated for in January 2020 when the NHS’s long-term spending plans were voted on in the House of Commons.

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Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy told Sky News: “We think nurses deserve a pay rise this year and that should never have been something that was up for negotiation – this is a Government that has completely got its priorities wrong.

“If they can give a special adviser (Dominic Cummings) who broke the rules a 50% pay rise but then offer our nurses a real-terms pay cut, that is a Government that just has not understood who it is that is getting us through this crisis.”

Senior Conservatives, including former health minister Dr Dan Poulter, who has been working on the NHS front line during the pandemic, have also broken ranks to criticise the 1 percent decision.

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