Rishi Sunak is under growing pressure to negotiate with striking nurses after four former Conservative ministers joined health service leaders to call for a way out of the escalating dispute.
On a day in which England’s chief nurse joined the picket line, the prime minister and the health secretary, Steve Barclay, were implored to make a U-turn and ask the NHS pay review body (PRB) to look again at the rise it recommended earlier this year.
