Top Tory Nadhim Zahawi has been accused of using Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine as a "justification" for giving nurses a real-terms pay cut.
The Conservative Party chairman urged NHS staff to send a "message” to the Russian tyrant, whose invasion has been blamed for surging energy prices.
It comes as tens of thousands nurses are set to go in strike in ten days' time and on 20 December in a bitter dispute over pay and working conditions.