Boris Johnson has acknowledged his “huge personal debt” to Covid nurse Jenny McGee – but refused to back a pay rise for NHS staff.
The prime minister was challenged in the Commons to back calls for a pay hike for nurses, after it emerged McGee, the nurse who helped him recover from his stint in intensive care at St Thomas’ Hospital, had quit.
She told a Channel 4 documentary nurses were not getting “the respect” or pay they deserve following a year on the front line during the pandemic.
The government has recommended a 1% rise for NHS staff this year, which is less than inflation and therefore a real terms pay cut.
Labour MP Andy Slaughter took the PM to task over McGee quitting, telling Johnson: “What does the prime minister think when he hears Jenny McGee, the nurse who saved his life, say of NHS staff ‘we are not getting the respect and our pay that we deserve, I’m just sick of it, so I’ve handed in my resignation’?
“Surely, even he must pause and think, what can be learned from mistakes of the last year, what Jenny calls the indecisiveness and mixed messages of his government.
“And will he think again about giving nurses more than an insulting 1% pay rise?”
McGee was among the NHS to be invited to Downing Street in July for a garden party to celebrate 72 years of the NHS.
She told the documentary, The Year Britain Stopped, that she was asked to take part in the clap for carers alongside the prime minister.
Johnson refused to budge on pay, however, replying to Slaughter: “I think the whole House acknowledges our collective debt to the nurses of the NHS and I certainly acknowledge my own huge personal debt.
“And that’s why of all the professions in this country in very, very tough times we’ve asked public sector review board to look at an increase in pay for nurses.”
He went on to say starting salaries for nurses have been increased before adding he knows “how hard it has been on the front line” coping with the pandemic and pointed to efforts to recruit more nurses.
McGee, originally from New Zealand, now plans to work abroad and spend time in her home country.
She told the documentary: “Yes, we have put ourselves on the line and we have worked so incredibly hard, and there’s a lot of talk about how we’re all heroes and all that sort of stuff.
“But at the same time, I’m just not sure if I can do it. I don’t know how much more I’ve got to give to the NHS.
“We’re not getting the respect and now pay that we deserve. I’m just sick of it. So I’ve handed in my resignation.”
Johnson went on to say starting salaries for nurses have been increased before adding he knows “how hard it has been on the front line” coping with the pandemic and pointed to efforts to recruit more nurses.