Labour today demanded NHS staff get "at least" a 2.1% pay rise this year - and backed nurses' right to strike if needs be.
Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth said the 1%, £3.50-a-week rise proposed by the government was a pay cut once inflation is factored in.
Pressed on whether he would back a strike, he insisted it was "hypothetical" despite unions already raising a fighting fund.
Mr Ashworth told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "I know nurses. They don’t want to go on strike. And I’ll always champion nurses and I’ll always stand by nurses, but they don’t want to go on strike.”
But asked again if he would back a strike if it happens, he said: "I will always support our nurses, I will always stand by nurses and I will always support the rights of staff to take industrial action… but we don’t want to get to that place.
"The government have to drop this 1% pay rise which is a pay cut because nurses… don’t want to go on strike, and I’ll always stand by them.”
A major union for teachers - whose pay is being frozen completely this year - warned it was not ruling out strike action either.
Kevin Courtney, general secretary of the NEU, said “members’ focus right now” is on the reopening of schools but asked if he would rule out strike action on pay, he told Times Radio: “I wouldn’t rule it out, I’m not ruling it in.
“The government should not be having a pay freeze, it is really foolish economics.
“We’ve got a very big debt at the moment… it’s not the biggest debt we’ve ever had. It’s not even the biggest debt we’ve had in 100 years.
“The debt at the end of the Second World War was bigger and I think we’re in a situation like that end of a war situation.”
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson insisted he was still “committed” to the Tory pledge to give teachers a £30,000 starting salary by 2024.
News of Labour's demand came as a poll today found even most Tory voters think the planned 1% increase is too low.
The Opinium survey for the Observer found 72% of the public thought the deal should be more generous, including 58% of Conservative voters.
Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy said NHS staff should get at least a 2.1% hike, but neither she nor Mr Ashworth would say exactly how much Labour would give if Keir Starmer was in No10.
Ms Nandy told Sky News: "We think they ought to go into these negotiations at a bare minimum of honouring that promise of a 2.1% (increase) and then consider what more they can offer to our NHS staff.
"[They] have done so much to put their families and themselves at risk every day going into work - some of them have died."
Mr Ashworth added: “You have a process. You look at retention issues, you look at recruitment issues, you look at their pay and then you give it to the independent pay review body who will negotiate with the different trade unions.
"And then we will honour what that pay review body recommends.”
The Royal College of Nursing is setting up an emergency £35m fund for strike action over the proposed "derisory" pay rise.
The drum beat towards industrial action in the health service appeared to start on Friday after Unite also said it will consider holding ballots.
The Department of Health and Social Care has submitted its proposal to the NHS pay review body, which will decide in May how much of a salary uplift the vast majority of NHS staff across the UK should get in 2021-22.
The 1% rise would apply to all staff apart from junior doctors, GPs and dentists.
A Government Spokesperson said: “Over one million NHS staff continue to benefit from multi-year pay deals agreed with trade unions, which have delivered a pay rise of over 12% for newly qualified nurses and will increase junior doctors’ pay scales by 8.2%.
“Pay rises in the rest of the public sector will be paused this year due to the challenging economic environment, but we will continue to provide pay rises for NHS workers, on top of a £513 million investment in professional development and increased recruitment. That’s with record numbers of doctors and 10,600 more nurses working in our NHS, and with nursing university applications up by over a third.
“The independent pay review bodies will report in late spring and we will consider their recommendations carefully when we receive them.”
