Matt Hancock will hold a press conference this afternoon, as the government comes under fire over NHS pay.
The Health Secretary is expected to host the Downing Street Covid briefing this afternoon.
It comes as ministers faced a furious response to proposals for a pay increase of just 1% for NHS heroes who cared for Covid-19 patients throughout the pandemic.
Health service unions denounced the proposed award as a "kick in the teeth" for staff who had given "absolutely everything" over the past year to keep the public safe.
But Mental Health minister Nadine Dorries defended the 1% rise - which is expected to be a real terms pay cut after inflation - as “what we can afford.”
We want to hear from NHS & care staff - tell us about your last year and how you feel about the one per cent pay rise plan. Email mirrornews@mirror.co.uk
Told the measly increase indicated nurses were a low priority for the government, Ms Dorries said: “It's a statement of what we think we can afford because we want to acknowledge nurses and doctors and healthcare workers.
“All other public sector workers are facing a pay freeze, having no increase whatsoever.
“We didn't think that was the right thing to do for the healthcare sector given what they've been through for the past year, and so that is why we've decided they have to have something, and we've recommended the 1%, which is what we can afford.
And she laid the blame for the decision at the door of Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor.
“I'm not Chancellor,” she told the BBC, “but I trust the chancellor. I trust him in handling the nation's purse strings.”
She added: “But all of us, the Prime Minister, the Chancellor, I don't think there's any of us who have not been touched or needed NHS services over the past year.
“But the chancellor believes this is what we can afford to pay across the board, this is across the board.”
Ms Dorries argued nurses have seen their pay increase by 12% over the past three years.
But this amounts to a 7.4% pay cut since 2010 after inflation is taken into account.
Sharing the Mirror’s front page story on NHS pay this morning, Labour leader Keir Starmer said: “You can't rebuild a country by cutting nurses' pay.
"Give our COVID heroes a pay rise."
