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.”
