Labour puts NHS pay at heart of London mayoral election fight

Exclusive: Challenge to Tory candidate to rebel over 1 per cent offer

Shaun Bailey, Conservative candidate for London mayoral election (PA)

Labour has stepped up its election campaign attack over nurses’ pay by issuing a direct challenge to the Conservative candidate for London mayor to rebel against Boris Johnson’s 1 per cent offer.

In a letter to Shaun Bailey, the party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner called on the Tory candidate to “stand with our NHS heroes” by joining his Labour rival Sadiq Khan in demanding a bigger rise.

The move came a day after Keir Starmer put the row over the pay offer at the heart of his campaign for the 6 May elections in London, Scotland, Wales and around 150 English councils, declaring: “A vote for Labour is a vote to support our nurses.”

And it came as Mr Khan announced action to put nurses and other key workers on the frontline of the battle against coronavirus at the head of the queue for affordable housing.

The London mayor said that new guidance for the capital’s borough councils will include an expectation that those on the list of key workers - also including police officers, transport workers, firefighters and teachers - should get priority access to homes to buy or rent below market rates.

Mr Khan said: “London’s key workers are the lifeblood of our city and we all depend on their hard work every day – to keep us safe, to care for us, and to provide other essential services. 

“Their heroic service during the pandemic has further highlighted the injustice that many key workers still can’t afford to live in the capital. Making it easier for key workers to live in the city they serve with such dedication is the very least they deserve.”

In her letter to Mr Bailey, Ms Rayner said that around 200,000 NHS workers in London will be left worse-off if the 1 per cent rise goes ahead at a time when inflation is expected to outstrip that figure.

She pointed to legislation on the NHS long-term spending plan, tabled by the government last year, which was based on the assumption of a 2.1 per cent rise for all NHS staff.

And she asked Mr Bailey: “This pay cut is the ultimate kick in the teeth to all our NHS heroes who have done so much to keep us safe over the past year. They have worked long hours, at times without the proper PPE, and too many have lost their lives working on the frontline.

“My question to you is this: will you stand with our NHS heroes and call on the Government to give them the pay rise they deserve, or will you back Boris Johnson’s pay cut for our frontline workers?”

Meanwhile, Mr Bailey went on the attack on Mr Khan after the mayor’s comment in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard that London “isn’t safe for women and girls”.

The Conservative candidate - who was this week accused of politicising the case - has promised to recruit 8,000 more police and back stop-and-search, as part of a drive to reduce crime in the capital.

Mr Bailey told TalkRadio: “He’s sat in front of us with a straight face and said that ‘London is no longer safe for women.’  That’s a failure on his part, that’s his job 1.01, the first thing he should be doing is making London safe for everyone.

“If you look in London, if you’re black you’re four times more likely to be murdered. The black community’s been screaming at the mayor for a very long time to be protected, to have the police service out there on the streets but then the mayor’s refused to back the police, refused to make that section of the community safe and now we’ve got another section of the community that by his own admission is not safe.”