Nurses ‘more deserving’ of a bigger pay rise than train drivers, says former Tory Chairman

The former Conservative Party chairman Sir Jake Berry has said he believes nurses are more deserving of a bigger pay rise than train drivers or junior doctors.

Speaking on GB News, he said: “I think the Government was wrong to give doctors a 22% pay rise and train drivers a 15% pay rise, which is one of the first things they did when they come to power.

“This is going back to the 1970s. I’m old enough to have been born in that decade and what happened is every single trade union said, ‘no, if they’ve had 22% or 15% we will not settle for less.’

“And that was the insanity, the stupidity of Rachel Reeves coming in and capitulating to all these union demands for their paymasters. Because, of course, every single one of the trade unions are going to say, we won’t settle for less.

“And arguably, nurses are more deserving, I think and lots of people believe, of a bigger pay rise compared to, say, a train driver.

“What I really object to is this idea that junior doctors didn’t know what their pay was. So they say their pay has been eroded over 15 years. Yes, that they only started their medical course five years ago, so they knew what they were signing up to.

“To say that you want your pay restored to what it was while these junior doctors were literally eight years old in school, not even knowing at that point that they want to become junior doctors, is bizarre.

“And junior doctors very quickly become senior doctors and earn £100,000 plus a year.

“That won’t happen to nurses and the Labour Party said, we won’t allow people to strike, we’ll always give in.

“So what I say is more power to the nurses: go on strike, get the pay rise that you need, because it’ll bring this Labour government down quicker than it otherwise would be, and it’s good for the country.”