Nurses warn Starmer strikes will continue under a Labour government if pay demands aren’t met

Nurses’ leaders have warned Keir Starmer that there will be more strikes under a future Labour government unless it sorts out pay and understaffing.

Patricia Marquis, England Director of the Royal College of Nursing, told i’s new Labour’s Plan for Power podcast that its members will not shy away from further industrial action in a bid to secure improvements for both them and their patients.

It comes as former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn attacked the decision of senior doctors to go on strike, branding the move as “unacceptable”, as he insisted that Labour cannot shirk from difficult battles.

The RCN carried out a sustained period of industrial action in an attempt to secure better pay and working conditions for their members, with nurses staging the first walk out in their 106-year history this time last year.

Ms Marquis said that it was unlikely the profession would wait so long to carry out further action, and did not rule out striking should Labour come into power after the next election.

“I think it is a change that there’s no going back from,” she said. It took us 106 years in England to get to that point of our members voting to take strike action. But I don’t think we’ll be going back for another 106 years to not contemplating that again.

“Nursing pay is still not at a level anywhere near the level it needs to be to really make it an attractive profession,” she continued, adding: “Whichever party, they need to listen to nurses. I don’t think we can say that our members wouldn’t go out on strike under a Labour government, not by any stretch of the imagination.”

The Government offered a 5 per cent increase in pay and a cash lump sum for NHS workers, which was accepted by the NHS Staff Council but rejected by the RCN, however, the union failed to secure enough votes to continue industrial action.

But Ms Marquis warned “members will decide as a collective, the times at which we take action”.

“And I don’t think that that’s going to particularly matter who’s in government,”she added.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said last year that the nurses’ demand for a 19 per cent increase was “obviously unaffordable”.

Mr Milburn said these were the challenges that both Sir Keir Starmer and his Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting will have to manage if they win the election.

Speaking to i’s podcast, he took particular aim at senior medics and the British Medical Association who have chosen to take industrial action at a time when the NHS is facing a major crisis.

“Sometimes you do end up, believe me, in fights if you’re the health secretary,” Mr Milburn said.

“We’ve got to be very clear about what the bottom lines are. And look, I think it is just, it’s just unacceptable that you have people going on strike in the National Health Service who are senior clinicians doing an important job of work for patients. And, and, you know, you’ve got to be clear about what is acceptable and what isn’t acceptable behaviours.”

He added: “And sometimes the BMA frankly, don’t do themselves any favours and don’t do their members any favours either.”

But Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, of the BMA, hit back.  “If someone has to be the ‘bogeyman’ and that has to be us well I can sleep at night knowing that we’re speaking the truth about the day-to-day pressures our patients are experiencing.. Pressures such a toxic culture…that is driving away dedicated doctors who’ve invested many, many years of their lives and much, much resource as well into their career to look after their patients. And it doesn’t feel safe.”

Labour’s Plan For Power: The NHS and your health” is the second episode, (available 6 am, Friday November 17) of an exclusive new i podcast series examining what a government led by Sir Keir Starmer would actually do if it wins the next election.

Hosted by Paul Waugh, i‘s chief political commentator, this fascinating four-part series will also dive into Labour’s plans for the NHS, Brexit and the North-South divide.