Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor of the exchequer, led calls just six months ago for a big pay rise for nurses to reflect the cost of living crisis, describing it as “unacceptable” that they were struggling to buy enough food for their families, pay their housing costs and get to work.
The statements, made last July in a report by the health and social care select committee, which Hunt chaired at the time, and signed off on, places the chancellor under more pressure to offer a better deal to nurses and other NHS workers to prevent further crippling strikes and stem the exodus of key staff to the private sector.
