'Claps don’t pay the bills, you need to give our nurses a fair wage Boris'

Boris Johnson has betrayed the people who did most to get this country through the coronavirus pandemic.

Our NHS heroes have been rewarded with contempt. The proposed 1% pay increase is not only a slap in the face – it is a derisory, mean and callous insult.

That’s less than a daily bus ticket to work in some cases.

For their dedication and sacrifice, the people the PM clapped for outside No10 – and who he thanked for saving his life – have been promised a real-terms cut in their living standards.

But the words of praise from the Prime Minister and his ministers now ring hollow.

Their claim that the measly 1% is an increase when other public sector workers are stuck in a pay freeze is palpably specious when forecasts point to a 1.5% increase in inflation over the coming year.

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Boris Johnson was hit by a furious backlash tonight over his offer of a paltry 1% pay rise for our NHS heroes (Matt Tacey)

It is a patronising message which smacks of “you should be so lucky”.

NHS staff – midwives, porters, cleaners and auxiliary workers as well as nurses – have made huge sacrifices for the good of all of us through the darkest days in the history of the health service.

And they have delivered hope through the phenomenal effort of the vaccine operation.

Exhausted both mentally and physically, traumatised by the loss of colleagues and patients, the least they expected was a fair pay rise.

Last month it emerged pandemic nurses have inspired a 32% rise in ­applications to join the profession (Adam Gerrard / Sunday Mirror)

Health Secretary Matt Hancock says they have been offered what is “affordable”.

It is a cynical calculation based on the least the Government thinks it can get away with.

The stingy cost of £500million sits starkly beside the estimated £34billion of Covid contracts awarded to the private sector – in too many cases to Tory friends, and with poor results.

It displays a shocking disregard for the long-term health of the NHS and the nation.

Vacancies stood at 100,000 before Covid. The service needs to rebuild if it is to survive intact.

Our NHS workers deserve a proper pay rise.

We stand with them in telling the PM to stick his 1%.

And we urge readers to join them in showing what they think of the proposal in this Thursday’s slow clap on our doorsteps.