Early evening summary
Steve Barclay, the health secretary, has agreed to discuss the possibility of a lump sum payment or backdating pay in order to end NHS strikes, according to multiple sources, though strikes will go ahead for nurses and ambulance staff next week. The news emerged after Barclay held talks with health unions about the strikes, while Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, and Huw Merriman, the rail minister, held similar talks with the teaching and transport unions. Rishi Sunak invited unions to the talks last week in a conciliatory gesture, but at the time the government said it was not willing to reconsider the pay offers for 2022-23 already on the table. The education talks did not seem to make much progress. (See 2.11pm.) After the health talks, one union official claimed that Barclay’s stance was an “insult”, and some other unions were very negative in public. But in private they were more positive, and Barclay has opened up the prospect of health workers getting some sort of increase in the payment on offer for the current financial year. After his talks at the Department for Transport, the RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said almost nothing to reporters, suggesting that substantial negotiations are ongoing.
The former Tory minister Claire Perry has quit the party and is now publicly praising Keir Starmer, the Times’ Henry Zeffman reports.
EXCL: Former Theresa May minister and Cop26 chief Claire Perry O’Neill reveals she has quit the Tories as she lavishes praise on Keir Starmer https://t.co/MqYLV9zdu5
— Henry Zeffman (@hzeffman) January 9, 2023
Updated
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, has put out a tweet welcoming what was in effect an endorsement from the Tory MP Sir Edward Leigh. (See 5.28pm.)
The Conservatives don’t have a plan for the NHS.
— Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) January 9, 2023
Labour do.
Don’t just take my word for it. They admit it themselves! pic.twitter.com/bZrkOVR6g0
Leigh is not the first Tory MPs to star in a Labour campaign advert. Labour has used Sir Charles Walker too, after a particularly memorable outburst.
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