Strike news – live: PMQs as government says it won’t improve pay offer for NHS workers

Transport secretary Mark Harper has urged rail unions to give “at least a neutral recommendation” when putting offers aimed at resolving industrial disputes to their members.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will press ahead with strikes from next week after it recommended its members should reject the latest offer from Network Rail.

Mr Harper told the Commons Transport Select Committee: “I would still urge the unions to keep talking, put those deals to their members with at least a neutral recommendation, and call off the strikes before Christmas which are going to be so damaging to individuals and businesses across a whole range of sectors.

“The government will do what we can to try and encourage both employers and unions to keep talking.”

Mr Harper told the committee that more than 60 per cent of the Department for Transport’s spending on capital and revenue is on rail, despite train travel only making up 10% of journey miles.

He added: “I just think we have to get that into a better sense of balance. That’s what we’re trying to do with the unions.”

Transport secretary Mark Harper said the walkout by Network Rail workers between Christmas Eve and December 27 will cause “more inconvenience to passengers” because it means planned maintenance will need to be rescheduled.

He told the Commons Transport Select Committee: “One of the things that Network Rail is now looking at, given the strikes that were called by the RMT on Network Rail, is looking at that £120 million worth of essential maintenance work to see the extent to which that’s affected.

“Of course, even though that may not impact passenger services, it absolutely will affect the reliability of the railway.

“Of course it’s done at Christmas because - although I recognise it sometimes causes inconvenience to people at Christmas - it is done then because that is the least busy time.

“If that work isn’t done at the Christmas period, it means it will have to be done at other times of the year, which will cause more inconvenience to passengers.”

Transport secretary Mark Harper has urged rail unions not to recommend their members reject offers aimed at resolving industrial disputes.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will press ahead with strikes from next week after it recommended its members should reject the latest offer from Network Rail.

Mr Harper told the Commons Transport Select Committee: “My department spends something over 60% of the department’s total spending on capital and revenue on railways, and only 10% of journey miles in the country are on rail.

“I just think we have to get that into a better sense of balance. That’s what we’re trying to do with the unions.

“I would still urge the unions to keep talking, put those deals to their members with at least a neutral recommendation, and call off the strikes before Christmas which are going to be so damaging to individuals and businesses across a whole range of sectors.

“The government will do what we can to try and encourage both employers and unions to keep talking.”

Watch the full clip here:

Health secretary Steve Barclay has signalled that the government is not willing to improve its pay offer to striking healthcare workers.

Pressed repeatedly on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether the government could come back with a better offer to trade unions, he said there is an independent process for pay recommendations.

The government, he said, is “prioritising getting the balance in terms of pay”.

“We’re looking at all the other things we can do for staff because staff tell me is not simply an issue of pay,” he said.

Asked if he accepts the word “crisis” to describe the NHS, he said: “People can come up with whichever term they want. We all recognise as a result of the pandemic there are huge pressures on the NHS.”

Ambulance paramedics will not respond to a fall at home by an elderly person when they go on strike later this month, the health secretary has warned.

Steve Barclay said talks are only beginning now to decide which incidents will trigger a call out during the walkouts – but indicated category three calls, including falls, would not.

“At the moment, the trade unions are saying those things wouldn’t be covered,” Mr Barclay said, arguing they “didn’t want to get into the details” before the strikes were announced, for 21 and 28 December.

He warned: “They have said that they will cover life threatening conditions, so that tends to less those sort of cases. They’re usually called a category three.”

Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick has more:

’At the moment the trade unions are saying those things wouldn’t be covered,’ Steve Barclay says

Asked if this included falls, he said it “tends to be less those sort of cases, they’re usually called a cat(egory) three”.

He said that “at the moment the trade unions are saying those things wouldn’t be covered” but “the indication from the trade unions” is that things like heart attacks would be covered.

Mr Barclay said he was “open to talks with the trade unions” and later added “it’s not just about pay, there’s many issues that affect staff, the quality of the NHS, tech, of staff and staffing levels”.

He said if everyone in the public sector was given a pay rise in line with inflation it would cost £28 billion.

As inflation has climbed steadily throughout year, workers have seen rising prices eroding their earnings – just as employers have been trying to make savings or modernise working practices to cope with increasing costs.

The result? Clashes over pay, redundancies, pensions and terms and conditions.

A new “winter of discontent” had begun even before Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement on 17 November, which left householders everywhere feeling even worse off.

These are the professions and industries for which strike dates have already been announced:

From nursing to postal deliveries, few public services will be unaffected by industrial action this winter

The Health Secretary has said the government was “investing” in paramedics after it was confirmed that thousands of ambulance workers and other NHS staff will strike on December 21 as a row over pay continues.

Steve Barclay told GB News: “It’s not reasonable to expect a further £28 billion in pay uplifts in line with inflation.

“It’s because there are many other pressures within the NHS that we need to address to get those patient backlogs down, to address the operations that people are waiting for, to address the pressures of 8am on primary care when people are trying to phone a GP.

“We are investing in our paramedics. We’ve got 3,000 a year in training but it’s right that we do that alongside the discussions on pay.”

He also said the “Prime Minister has stood his ground” in the dispute.

“We want to work constructively with the trade unions,” he said as he acknowledged that there were pressures on the NHS.

Last hopes of averting walkouts by rail workers next week were dashed after a deadline for agreement passed without the resolution of a row over pay and working practices.

And unions announced co-ordinated strikes by healthcare staff, including ambulance workers, on 21 and 28 December - the first of them coming a day after the first stoppage by nurses in generations.

Ambulance workers to walk out on 21 December, as rail strikes confirmed for next week