NHS staff pay rise of 6.5% 'set to be agreed' after seven year wage cap

It follows intense pressure after last year's general election result to end the highly contentious cap on NHS pay

Deal covers NHS workers in England at a cost of around £4bn (PA)

A deal giving NHS workers a 6.5 per cent pay rise over three years is set to be agreed, marking the end to the highly contentious seven-year wage cap.

Leaders of trade unions representing more than a million workers including nurses, midwives, ambulance drivers, porters and other staff will meet employees on Wednesday to finalise the increase.

Workers will have to be consulted but it is expected they will receive higher pay from July, backdated to April, according to the BBC.

The deal covers NHS workers in England at a cost of around £4bn, which is new money from the Government rather than coming from existing budgets.

Money is also expected to be made available for similar pay rises in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

NHS workers have been subject to the Government's public sector pay cap for seven years, limited to an annual increase of no more than one per cent.

But Downing Street indicated it would lift the cap in the aftermath of the disastrous general election result and pressure from Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-austerity message and Labour’s vow to abandon the wage cap.

In the run-up to the snap election, Theresa May also came under intense fire after she told a nurse there is “no magic money tree” when asked about the freeze on public sector pay cap during a televised debate.

And in September last year the Prime Minister also suffered an embarrassing defeat in the Commons on a non-binding motion in favour of increasing NHS pay after the Democratic Unionist Party – responsible for propping up Ms May’s fragile government — signalled it would vote with Labour on the motion.