A newly qualified nurse earns £24,900 and has around £60,000 in student debt.
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has said that “now is not the time to discuss a pay rise for nurses”.
Speaking during an interview with Andrew Marr earlier this week, Matt Hancock was asked if nurses deserved a pay rise. He said; “everybody wants to support our nurses right now and I’m sure that there will be a time to debate things like that.
“At the moment the thing that we’re working on is how to get through this.”
Mr. Hancock did say however that would be “sympathetic to the argument” but added “now is not the moment to enter into a pay negotiation. Now is the moment for everybody to be doing their very best.”
The starting salary for a newly qualified nurse is £24,900 with around £60,000 in student debt.
Like all public sector workers, NHS staff were subjected to a pay freeze then a 1% pay cap.
In contrast, Labour’s new leader Keir Starmer insisted that the NHS needed more money and staff deserved a meaningful pay rise.
He said the pandemic had exposed “who the key workers really are and they very often have been overlooked, underpaid and there’s going to be a change.
“They were last and now they’ve got to be first.”
Mr Hancock’s social media account was subsequently inundated with messages from people who disagreed with his stance.
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