Jeremy Hunt today slapped down striking nurses’ plea for a pay rise as his health chief branded it "neither reasonable nor affordable".
The Chancellor rejected calls for NHS staff to get 5% on top of RPI inflation, which is running at 12.6%, after years of Tory freezes and real-terms pay cuts.
He said: “We have to recognise a difficult truth that if we gave everyone inflation-proof pay rises, inflation would stay, we wouldn't bring down inflation.”
And his health secretary, Steve Barclay, said the Royal College of Nursing’s demands were "neither reasonable nor affordable”.
Nurses at scores of NHS trusts have voted to strike in England for the first time in the union’s 106-year history after being offered around £1,400 or 4%.
Mr Barclay is "saddened" by the proposed industrial action by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which he said is in "nobody's best interests".
But he claimed the pay award "is a balanced increase", which is "fair for nurses and the taxpayer".
He wrote in the Sunday Telegraph: "Yet the RCN is demanding a massive pay rise of 17.6%; an increase that is simply neither reasonable nor affordable.
"It is about three times the average settlement that millions of hard-working people, including many Sunday Telegraph readers, working outside the public sector will typically receive.
"Huge settlements like these would turbocharge inflation when we are endeavouring to keep it under control.
"It will have an adverse impact on people's incomes in the long run."
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Pat Cullen said: “We are doing this for patients because there simply aren’t enough nursing staff to care for them – and there will never be enough until they are paid fairly.
“Billions of pounds is being spent on agency staff to plug these huge workforce shortages. Temporary staff have vital roles in providing safe care but they should not be continually used to offset a shortfall in permanent staff.
“This lack of logic from the Government need to be reversed in this week’s budget. Nursing and patients deserve better.”
Mr Barclay wrote his door "will always be open" to the unions, following a "constructive" meeting with RCN general secretary Pat Cullen in Whitehall on Thursday.
The talks instead were said to have focused on a "wide range of issues" including patient safety and working conditions.
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said “it’s a badge of shame” that nurses are staging their first ever national strike in England, but also refused to commit to a 17% pay rise.
She said "I’m not going to pluck numbers out of the air" and "it’s up to the pay review bodies to work with the unions”.
That is despite the fact the pay review bodies have already reported back, and any further negotiations are between unions and the government.
She told Sky News's Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: "It is a badge of shame that for the first time in their history nurses are looking to go on strike.
"This didn't happen when Labour was in government because we valued and respected public service workers, including those who work in our NHS who've given so much to our country these last few years.
"We've got huge recruitment challenges in the NHS including amongst nurses, workload issues, issues of stress, we've got nurses that are going to food banks.
"So, we need to support our NHS workers, including our nurses, and that means fair but affordable pay rises.”
"I'm not going to cut in to the the pay review negotiations that are going on.
“But the Secretary of State for Health should meet with the nurses and the nursing unions and work out a deal, and show some respect to these crucial public service workers."
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has not said whether Labour would give nurses a real-terms pay rise.
But he wrote in the Sunday People : “The cavalry is coming with Labour. We will launch the biggest expansion of medical training in the history of the NHS so it has the staff it needs.
“We will double the number of medical school places and train thousands more nurses and midwives every year.”
He added: “The Government must negotiate with the RCN, avoid disruption to patient care, and give the NHS the staff it needs.”
