Sir Keir Starmer says 19% pay rise for nurses is ‘unaffordable’ as he pleas for last-ditch talks to stop strikes

26 comments
  1. So, Keir is just entirely bought and paid for. Can we just disband the voting system entirely now? It’s Tory or Tory.

  2. >“I want to see nurses paid well, under the last Labour government we had two things: fair pay for workers and we didn’t have strikes. Now here we are a few days before Christmas facing the possibility of a strike on Thursday.”

    >While he confirmed that he wants to see this issue resolved, he added: “I think 19% is more than can be afforded by the government,”

    >“But I would get around the table and negotiate something that would work for both sides,” he said.

    The actual quote.

  3. All the right wingers bitching and moaning as if they haven’t voted for fuckwits and that’s why we are here.

    This is all on the right wing. You wanted to reward asset holders over workers for 12 years and now you are shitting yourselves. As you should be.

    You’ve got maybe 3 months to sort this shit out, otherwise I don’t fancy you’re chances.

  4. Perhaps Priti Patel could ask her friend to fund some of the 19% with the money they both robbed from the NHS during Covid by selling PPE at extortionate rates to the NHS and refusing to allow the already-struggling-NHS to source its own masks etc because Priti was so profit hungry.

  5. Double digit real terms pay cuts for NHS professionals every decade is unaffordable

    Why is the leader of the “Labour” party playing devil’s advocate like this? Woke up and forgot what colour tie they made him put on

  6. Maybe we could afford it if we hadn’t recently decided to completely fuck our economy by leaving the largest free trade union in the world, Starmer, you cretinous bubo. A decision you won’t even consider reversing.

  7. I am disappointed with Keir Starmer while I take him any day of the corrupt torries, he is a right-leaning centrist so let’s assume we get him as the next PM, which all indicators point to then we go from Far right to Center right :/ or in other words its from UKIP to Tory Light but this country needs after 12years of shit a change

  8. The Tories want a strike and it’s important that you tell everyone you know (especially boomer relatives).

    The ‘independant review board’ or whatever they are called don’t have the power to accept a deal, they have to speak to government once they believe they reach a compromise to get authorisation.

    Someone behind the scenes, that doesn’t have to negotiate or face the situation is forcing this situation.

    A 10% raise would cost government about 3.4bn, but when Truss brought in the 45% abolishment of 4bn, people (and politician’s) argued it away as “just a rounding error”. So you have to question why the government is digging their heels in here and risking what will in effect be a general strike. I personally am wondering what they are delaying for? Because these updates in public service jobs are well over due and will happen.

    For example the nurses are asking for 19%, while I personally believe they deserve it (hell I’d go further and turn nursing into a desired/reliably paid profession). The nurses union know they won’t get it.

    I suspect they would accept somewhere around 8% (uplifted in budget, not paid for by cuts). Which is probably what Keir is alluding with his statement about getting around the table. He also probably doesn’t want to risk giving the media anything that can be thrown at the boomers come election time.

    From what I’ve heard of these and the RMT negotiations, every compromise or suitable deal both parties (union and review board’) come to is then Rejected by government, where they stick to “8% over two years” which is 4% and clearly worded so they have frame that the nurses refused an 8% deal.

    If a fair deal (like in Scotland) can’t be made, strikes have to happen and the blame has to lie on government.

  9. It’s completely affordable. Lady Mone’s ppe profit alone would cover a large swathe of it.
    And remind me how much we paid Dildo Harding for a barely coherent Tack and Trace system?

  10. Its good Labour focus on the important things like banning VPNs and hating immigrants while telling nurses to go fuck themselves.

    That “electability” Corbyn didn’t have is just conservatism.

  11. Where’s the money gone? Half a trillion new money was pushing into the economy over the last years – who has that money?

    The so called “fiscal black hole” is a big pile of cash on someones balance sheet. One persons debt is always someone else’s wealth.

    We are a rich rich country where no one has any money. Don’t you think that’s a bit weird?

  12. If you read the article he’s not against nurses getting a pay rise but just thinks at the moment the government does not have an additional £10 billion to pay for a 19% increase and wants to get the parties round a table and negotiate. Our current government has absolutely fucked up the finances of this country and driven it to this point, but I honestly can’t see where they are getting a casual extra £10 billion a year to finance this. I’m sure someone will be able to tell me how as this ain’t my expertise. He’s in a bit of a shit situation because he could say “yep, give them a 19% pay rise” and then Labour are once again accused of recklessly spending money they do not have.

    Nurses are absolutely deserving of a proper pay rise which allows them to live comfortably because frankly it’s been too long and fuck this Tory government for letting it get this far.

  13. You know what’s more unaffordable, having no fucking nurses!

    Are you fucking kidding mate, support the unions, support the nurses!

  14. When the tax burden is at an all time high on the British public, then yes, 19% is unaffordable. Huge wage rises will just cause job losses for the same people demanding higher wages.

  15. While I believe nurses absolutely deserve the 19%, based on the cuts and freezes they’ve received for a decade, the point of such as figure is to *fucking negotiate*, not write it off at first glance!

    “We can’t do 19%, how about 8%?”

    “You can do better.”

    “Fine. 12%.”

    Etc.

Leave a Reply