UK Nurses Reject Pay Offer During Reeves's Conference Speech

The UK’s main nurses union rejected a government pay offer, just as Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves was using her speech to the Labour Party’s annual conference to celebrate how higher public sector salaries on her watch had helped end months of industrial action.

(Bloomberg) — The UK’s main nurses union rejected a government pay offer, just as Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves was using her speech to the Labour Party’s annual conference to celebrate how higher public sector salaries on her watch had helped end months of industrial action.

The Royal College of Nursing released a statement rejecting a pay award of 5.5%, paving the way for further industrial action. It had been announced by Reeves at the end of July, in the weeks after Labour’s election victory. 

“I am proud to stand here as the first chancellor in 14 years to have delivered a meaningful, real terms pay rise to millions of public sector workers,” Reeves said in her speech. 

The rejection — and timing of the announcement — underscores how Labour is struggling to balance the demands from some unions with Reeves’s promise to fix the UK’s stretched public finances. 

The Unite union is pushing for a motion opposing Labour’s decision to scrap some winter energy assistance for millions of pensioners. If passed, it would be an embarrassing but non-binding blow to the new government.

Speaking on Times Radio after the RCN statement, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the government is on the side of the nurses.

“I’ve already got the nurses’ goodwill,” Streeting said. “I need to repay that goodwill by giving them the tools they need to do the job and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”