Former MP Ann Widdecombe has described nurses' demands for a 19% pay rise as 'cloud cuckooland' as she lashed out at strikes - as well as some senior Conservative figures. Nurses are threatening to stage a fresh wave of strikes in the new year on an even larger scale if ministers fail to respond in the 48 hours following next week’s walkout.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is poised to escalate its industrial action in January to hit a greater number of hospitals if the Government falls foul of its deadline.The 48-hour countdown will begin after the RCN stages its second day of strikes on Tuesday.
The union has also warned it will scale back its support for non-emergency services if further walkouts go ahead next month. Despite the widespread disruption caused by the nurses’ first strike on Thursday, polling showed that the majority of the public were in favour of the action.
It involved around a quarter of hospitals and community teams in England, all trusts in Northern Ireland and all but one health board in Wales. Across England, 9,999 staff were absent from work due to the strike, while nearly 16,000 appointments, procedures and surgeries were rescheduled.
Ann Widdecombe, a former Conservative MP and Brexit Party MEP, told FairBettingSites: "The Government needs to face down the unions in much the same way that Margaret Thatcher eventually did and simply say I’m sorry, we understand what inflation does, but the most important aim has to be to get inflation down.
"We can’t do that if we are putting pay rises near the level of inflation. There has to be a gap. I would even say that to the nurses. I understand entirely, but 19% is cloud cuckoo land as it has to be paid for."
She has also hit out at wider strikes, including those disrupting rail travel across the country this Christmas. Ms Widdecombe said: "The Government has to to stand firm against [trade unionist] Mick Lynch. In the 70’s - which I still remember with shuddering horror - we had strike after strike after strike.
"There was even a point where the doctors were taking industrial action, then if you died, you couldn’t get buried because the grave diggers were out on strike. London was full of overflowing rubbish and goodness knows what else. I just remember it with shuddering horror.
"The causes are very similar, because the major cause is inflation. We have been spoiled now for a couple of decades, we’ve somehow grown to regard it as an entitlement, when there’s inflation, people’s pay packets are worth less, so they want to catch up with inflation, so if you do that, it just puts the prices up and you get into the wage cost spiral.
"The 70’s were worse because it was allowed to go on and that’s why this government has to stop this going on and face down strikes.
"In the end, whole generations don’t remember the 70s, even children alive in the 70’s don’t have active adult memories of what it entailed, so people think we are in an entirely new situation. We aren’t. One of the big arts of politics is to learn the lessons of the past."
She added: "I think anti strike laws have a very big role to play. They did in the Thatcher years, but in the 70s there was no notice of strikes. We all know now when the trains aren’t going to be running, get it in the diary. We make other arrangements as we have notice. In the 70s they could strike at the drop of a hat. They had a lot of unofficial strikes or wildcat strikes.
"The laws that Thatcher introduced helped tremendously, now probably we do need to tighten up. I would much rather the government tried to resolve this by appealing to the common sense of the public. Unions won’t go on strike if they don’t think they have the support of the public.
"Mick Lynch is gradually losing support, but he started with a lot."
Ms Widdecombe has, however, spoken in support of MPs having huge earnings from second jobs.
She said: "It’s nonsense to say MPs shouldn’t have second earnings. If they’re capable, good on them. We want capable people in politics. You’re not neglecting constituents by public speaking. If you’re speaking for three hours, say, that’s all it takes and you’re not depriving constituents.
"I refused to do Strictly while I was an MP, but I did some of the little ones. One of them involved one Sunday a month for six months. With Boris, it’s his reputation combined with the sum of money that has drawn criticism. There is a huge envy out there. He’s always divided people with his huge personality.
"Boris Johnson would be absolutely grand for Strictly, but he’s still an MP. So I don’t think he should as an MP. Believe me, Strictly is a 7-day-a-week business. It’s absolutely full-on and then Monday morning you’re there again. If you’re successful you could be doing that for 10 weeks.
"I think we could see him doing something else, he loved doing Have I Got News For You."
Ms Widdecombe is not so happy about former Health Secretary Matt Hancock's choice of TV appearance. She said: "It was wrong for Matt Hancock to make money from I’m a Celeb. To take weeks away from Parliament, when it was in recess, and also there will always be a case from a constituent that needs an MPs attention. That is a failure to constituents.
"If he were to step in the ring, I think he’d look an absolute fool and he’d end up with a broken nose and two black eyes. I really don’t think he should do that. I don’t see him as a boxer. Boxing is a skill, it’s serious. The only person I think he should box with would be a teenager just to learn. He’s chosen the wrong direction and I don’t think he should have gone in the jungle."
And she doesn't think former Prime Minister Theresa May should make money from public speaking. Ms Widdecombe said: "Theresa May is not the most inspiring person on Earth. When she talks people go to sleep. Although smaller than Boris, she’s still making a fortune on the speaking circuit and no one has complained about that.
"And yet she was the biggest failure going. But they complain about Boris because whatever Boris does, it divides people.
"I don’t understand why people would pay to hear Theresa May speak. I’d pay money not to hear her speak. I wouldn’t pay a fiver to go to an event with Theresa May."
Ms Widdecombe also had her say on current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. She said: "I’m not convinced Rishi Sunak has an inner Thatcher. I think Rishi is a perfectly competent manager, but I don’t see any vision.
"What is his vision for the future of britain? Liz Truss had a vision. The vision was sound, what was absolutely hopeless was the implementation. They tried to do everything at once, they did it without consultation, didn’t try and take people with her but the actual vision of a low tax, highly competitive economy, making the most of Brexit and our opportunities to compete with rather than be subjectived by the EU was right. I don’t know what Rishi’s vision is. When you say summon his inner Thatcher, I’m not sure he’s there.
"Sunak is a perfectly reasonable manager and so long as that is all that you require, that is absolutely fine, but it’s not a long term solution to anything. You need a vision and a programme and some idea of where the train is going. With Thatcher, you always knew where the train was going. You might have wanted to jump off occasionally, but you always knew where it was going, because she had a philosophy, she had a vision, she had a determination to make everything happen.
"Rishi has the majority to try and do that but he has a completely ungovernable parliamentary party. They are completely ungovernable. That is his biggest drawback, he’ll always be afraid to do things which are original because he has such a hopeless mutinous party.
"I don’t know because it’s a medium to long term business which revolves around the selection of candidates."
But despite her views on the current crop of Conservative MPs, she doesn't think Labour will win a General Election. Ms Widdecombe said: "I don’t think it’s inevitable that Keir Starmer is the next Prime Minister. I’m not saying that because I would prefer that he didn’t become Prime Minister. There are two years until the next election. Two years is an age in politics. Two years ago, everyone thought the Tories were invincible, now Labour are invincible. There’s no reason why in two years time, it won’t be the Tories again.
"There’s plenty of time as inflation starts to subside, if they stand firm over the strikes and things do get a bit better, people become less willing to take a leap in the dark to the other side.
"If I was going to bet on the next election - and I haven’t ever bet on an election in my life - but if I was going to, at a time when the odds are very strongly against the Tories, it’s a pretty good time to put on a modest wager.
"As you get closer to an election, people want to know what you are going to do. People want to know what Labour is going to do, not what it says, not what the Tories are getting wrong.
"As you get nearer to an election you have to start putting your policies on the line and then people start to think if that’s what we really want, and now it doesn’t look impossible that we move to a hung parliament."
