Health minister hits back at claim government no longer talking to unions on pay – UK politics live | Politics

And here are some more lines from Maria Caulfield, the health minister speaking for the government on the morning interview round.

For the vast majority of patients, they won’t be affected in terms of going to procedures and appointments and operations.

If their trust is affected, they would have been in touch with them to let them know what’s happening.

• She expressed doubt that the increased pay offer to health workers in Wales would resolve the strikes. Most health unions in Wales called off this weeks after the Welsh government tabled a revised offer so that their members can consider it. But, when asked why the UK government was not doing the same for health workers in England, Caulfield told the Today programme:

The offer in Wales, 3%, is only actually a 1.5% pay increase, and then another 1.5% lump sum payment. And that is being put to members in Wales. A much higher offer was put to members in Scotland before Christmas and was rejected. So we are in no means in Wales out of the woods in terms of a deal being done.

• She insisted that offering an above-inflation pay high rise to nurses would fuel inflation. But when the Today presenter Justin Webb put it to her paying staff more in the NHS would not lead to prices going up (as paying staff more does in firms that fund pay rises by charging customers more), and asked Caulfield to explain what the “mechanism” was by which a pay rise would fuel inflation, Caulfield dodged the question. She replied:

It’s not just about fuelling inflation. It’s paying for it.

When Webb put it to her that the government’s case wasn’t, then, about the inflation risk after all, Caulfield replied:

It’s a combination of both. If you give above inflation pay rises, that would in fuel inflation. But we’re talking about – in Wales they’ve got 3% on the table. But we have to pay for it.

And at the moment we are borrowing record amounts of money. We’re seeing interest rates that have gone up because we’ve got record levels of borrowing. So it is the whole financial picture that has to be taken into consideration.

There is a risk to patients the longer that strikes go on.

So if your operation is cancelled the first time, there is probably a minimum risk. If that’s cancelled time and time again because of ongoing strikes, then patients become more poorly and there is always a risk.

And with ambulance strikes, if someone’s having a heart attack or a stroke, that does increase someone’s risk the longer that response time is.

Robert Buckland has confirmed that he and Dominic Raab had “a disagreement” when they were both in cabinet, after it was reported Raab tried to get Buckland sacked as Welsh secretary last year amid a fallout over policy, my colleague Peter Walker reports.

Good morning. Scotland and Wales have had devolved governments for more than 20 years, but it probably was not until Covid that people realised the extent to which, when it comes to health policy, the UK government is just an England government. Today England is seeing what is being described as the worst day of disruption in health this winter, with nurses and ambulance staff both on strike. But health workers are not on strike in Scotland, and there is only a limited ambulance strike in Wales by members of the Unite union. England is different because the Scottish and Welsh governments have made improved pay offers, but the UK England government is not doing the same.

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Yesterday Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, said UK government ministers were lying when they said pay talks with unions were still taking place.

This morning Maria Caulfield, a health minister, was the government’s designated voice on the morning interview programmes. She did not have anything new to announce, but she hit back at claims that ministers were unwilling to talk to the unions. She told the Today programme:

What I would say … to the RCN, as [is] happening in Scotland, they’ve called off the strikes to discuss the forthcoming year’s pay settlement from April, which is just a few weeks away – do the same in England.

The secretary of state’s been meeting in January, almost on a weekly basis, with a range of health care unions. So the door is firmly open. And I would ask the RCN and the ambulance unions to get back round the table.

I will post more from Caulfield’s interview round shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Morning: Keir Starmer and Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, are on a visit in Bristol. Starmer is expected to record a TV interview.

2.30pm: Suella Braverman, the home secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

Afternoon: Peers debate the retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill.

5pm: Spectator TV broadcasts its interview with Liz Truss – her first since she left No 10.

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