Oldham MP criticises 'derisory' pay offer to nurses

Debbie Abrahams, MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, has slammed the Government’s pay offer to nurses as ‘derisory’, when compared to billions of pounds allegedly being wasted on the Serco Test and Trace system.

Addressing fellow MPs in the Commons, Ms Abrahams, said: “By the end of the year £37bn of taxpayers’ money will have been spent on the Serco Test and Trace system, which isn’t even fit for purpose.

“This is on top of the Government spending £10bn more on PPE contracts than they should have.”

She then went on to ask: “So with this waste how does the Government justify that most of the 300,000 NHS nurses are only worth a £250 per year pay rise?”

Helen Whatley, the Government’s minister on hand to answer the question, because Matt Hancock chose not to attend the debate, answered by saying:

“The pay conversation that we are having at the moment is indeed about nurses, and I cannot thank them enough, but it is also about the wider NHS workforce being considered in this process.

“The Government were absolutely right to invest in PPE to protect staff in health and social care during the pandemic at a time when there was a global shortage of PPE, and we are absolutely right to have invested in a world-beating test and trace service, which is doing a phenomenal job and is essential to our country’s recovery from this pandemic.”

Talking after the speech Ms Abrahams said: “The Public Accounts Committee have ruled that the Test and Trace system was set up on the basis it would help prevent future lockdowns but since its creation there have been two more.

“The committee went on to say that Government spending on the system was ‘unimaginable’ and warned that the taxpayer is being treated like an ATM machine.”

The Public Accounts Committee report questioned:

An over-reliance on consultants, with some paid more than £6,600 a day

A failure to be ready for the surge in demand for tests seen last September

Never meeting its target to turn around tests done face-to-face within 24 hours

Contact tracers only having enough work to fill half their time even when cases were rising

A splurge on rapid tests with no clear evidence they will help

Ms Abrahams added: “The pay offer to our amazing NHS nurses, after all they’ve been through over the last year, is derisory when compared to the way money was splurged on the deeply flawed Test and Trace system."

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