Explainer-in-brief: How to solve a problem like the unions?
Yesterday Keir Starmer branded the nurses strike “a badge of shame” on the Conservative government.
The Labour leader held little back in Prime Minister’s Questions as the country faces industrial action today. But it was also a distraction technique for an opposition party gripped with indecision over the strikes.
Rishi Sunak rightly called Starmer’s demands that he “get around the table” with the RCN, the nurses union, a “political formula for avoiding taking a decision”. It’s unclear what exactly Labour would do differently.
They have said they would pump more money into the health service by scrapping non-dom status, but in almost the same breath Starmer called the 19 per cent pay rise nurses are demanding “unaffordable”.
And in return for extra money, Wes Streeting has called for considerable changes to the quality of the service offered. He said he wouldn’t make “promises he can’t keep” on higher pay.