Nurses could strike until Christmas as dispute with Tories over NHS pay escalates.

Key Highlights :

1. Nurses rejected the Government's latest pay offer last week, despite general secretary Pat Cullen recommending they accept the deal.

2. Ministers offered a 5% pay rise for 2023-24 and a one-off payment of at least £1,655 to top up last year's salary.

3. Defending the deal, Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands claimed today: “"I just can't stress enough how that is fair, both to nurses, all of NHS staff, public sector staff and to the taxpayer. "Of course the other unions are balloting at the moment.

4. But the deal was resisted and nurses are now poised to walkout for 48 hours April 30 and May 2.

5. Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting urged RCN members not to walk out from emergency and critical care.

6. Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “There just aren't circumstances in which I'm going to sit on your programme and say I think it's right to remove cover for emergency care, for cancer care. I think that'd be the wrong thing to do,” he told Sky News.

7. Ms Cullen insisted nurses would leave picket lines to take care of patients if there was an emergency.

     Royal College of Nursing general secretary Pat Cullen said members would be balloted on a fresh wave of industrial action after rejecting the latest pay offer from the Government.

     In a statement, she said: \"Nurses have made it clear that they are not prepared to take another pay cut and are now balloting their members on whether or not to take further industrial action.\"

     The RCN said the pay offer - which would see nurses receive a 1% pay rise in Year 1, followed by a 1.5% pay rise in Year 2 - was \"far below the rate of inflation\" and \"would not bring nurses anywhere near the level of pay they deserve.\"

     The RCN has previously called for a pay rise of at least 3%.

     The RCN said the vote would take place over the next few weeks and that it would \"continue to work with the Government and other partners to find a solution that supports the best interests of nurses and the public.\"

     The RCN has previously called for a pay rise of at least 3%.

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