Derbyshire NHS staff voice ‘outrage’ as MPs set to receive £3,300 pay rise

Healthcare workers demanded better wages when they held a protest outside the offices of North East Derbyshire MP Lee Rowley.

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The demonstration came after the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) set out plans to give MPs a £3,300 pay rise next year – as the impacts of Covid-19 continue to affect the economy and people’s livelihoods.

Matthew Tacey, a lead nurse in Chesterfield, said: “The announcement of MPs receiving a pay rise has, yet again, caused outrage among healthcare staff and the public.

“MPs have received a 29 per cent pay rise in 10 years while the NHS has only received 10 per cent.

“We continue to suffer at the hands of the Government.

“We do not feel valued – we go to work and give blood, sweat, tears and, in some cases, our lives.

“We need to feel valued and ensuring our pay matches the responsibility would be a very good and welcomed place to begin.”

Conservative Mr Rowley, who voted against lifting the cap on public sector wages in 2017, described IPSA as ‘pretty dysfunctional’ and ‘not fit for purpose’.

He said: “I know Mr Tacey and his colleagues feel very strongly about pay rises in the NHS and I have spoken several times to them over social media and email in recent weeks.

“As Mr Tacey knows, there have been pay rises across the NHS in the past few years but I accept that some people, including him, feel very strongly on this subject and want to go further.

“The Government has said it will return to the matter of public sector pay in the coming months.

“We are all extremely grateful for the continuing work of everyone on the frontline – whether in the NHS or elsewhere – during these extremely difficult times.

“On the subject of MPs, we don’t set our own pay and instead rely upon an independent body to do that, just like other parts of the public sector.

“As it happens, I think that independent body, IPSA, is pretty dysfunctional and should be dismantled and started again – they just aren’t fit for purpose.”

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