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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Denis Campbell, Kiran Stacey and Rachel Hall

Union leader calls Rishi Sunak deluded as NHS pay row escalates

Striking nurses outside St Thomas hospital in London
Nurses and ambulance staff staged an unprecedented joint stoppage on Monday in the biggest strike in NHS history. Photograph: Guy Bell/Rex/Shutterstock

A health union leader has described Rishi Sunak as deluded for suggesting NHS staff should abandon their campaign to secure a bigger pay rise this year.

The GMB’s national secretary, Rachel Harrison, made the remark in response to Downing Street’s insistence that it would not talk about improving the £1,400 pay award for frontline personnel for 2022/23 even though it has triggered the wave of NHS strikes.

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