Theresa May has come under fire for telling nurses “there is no magic money tree” after being questioned about ongoing pay restrained.
The Prime Minister was responding to a question from a Nurse in the audience during an election special of BBC Question Time: “My wage slips from 2009 reflect exactly what I’m earning today. How can that be fair, in the light of the job that we do?“
The PM said she recognised the hard work of NHS staff but that “hard choices” had to be made across the public sector which led to a 1% pay cap.
“We did that because of the decisions we had to take to bring public spending under control, because it wasn’t under control under the last Labour government”.
“And I’m being honest with you in terms of saying that we will put more money into the NHS, but there isn’t a magic money tree that we can shake that suddenly provides for everything that people want”.
Presenter, David Dimbleby, asked the PM if she would “sleep happily” knowing that Nurses and other public sector workers are getting poorer and relying on food banks.