Rishi Sunak warns NHS strikes could go on for months as he rules out reopening pay offers – live

Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, has been giving interviews this morning, as well as joining RCN members on a picket line in Newcastle.

• Cullen said that, if the government did not resolve the dispute, the RCN would escalate its strike action in January. She said:

If this government keeps giving our nursing staff the cold shoulder as they have to date then, it’s really unfortunate that, come January, we will see more hospitals being involved and striking and that means more nursing staff involved.

I want to say to the prime minister this morning, please step in now and do the decent thing on behalf of every patient and member of the public of this country.

But please do the decent thing also for nursing staff – get round the table and start to talk to me on their behalf.

That’s the only respectful and decent thing to do, and let’s bring these strikes to a conclusion.

• She refused to say whether the offer of an extra one-off payment might help to settle the strike. Steve Barclay, the health secretary, reportedly wanted to offer nurses a one-off lump sum, but was overruled by No 10. Asked if nurses would accept this, Cullen said nurses did not want “quick fixes”. They needed an in-depth review of the value of their work, she said. But she added: “That’s for us to discuss in a room, not on the airwaves.”

Good morning. Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are on strike again today. And health chiefs are even more worried about the impact of another dispute tomorrow, when ambulance staff in England and Wales take industrial action.

Rishi Sunak is chairing cabinet this morning, and at 3pm he will take questions from the Commons liaison committee, probably for around 90 minutes. It will probably be the most extensive Q&A he has undergone since he became prime minister.

But if anyone expects him to open the door to an early resolution of the health service strikes, they are likely to be disappointed. Sunak gave an interview to the Daily Mail’s Jason Groves yesterday in it he warned the public to be ready for the long haul. Here are the key lines.

Yeah. Look, I’m going to keep making the same arguments I’ve been making.

The government is acting fairly and reasonably and will always continue to do so. I’m going to do what I think is right for the long-term interests of the country – combating inflation.

The government is doing everything it can to be responsible and put in place contingency measures to support people, but ultimately I will continue to urge the unions to call off the strike because that’s what is causing disruption to people’s lives – that is what is having an impact on their health.

[Sunak] flatly rejected reports that he was preparing a climbdown in his trial of strength with union leaders. The PM said it was too late to improve on pay offers in a financial year that was ‘basically finished’.

• But Sunak implied that unions might get a more generous pay offer for 2023-24 if they called off strikes now. “Offering an olive branch to workers, [Sunak] hinted that next year’s pay round could be more generous if union members behaved responsibly now,” Groves reports. He goes on:

Mr Sunak said it was too late in the financial year to unpick the settlement – and suggested the unions should focus on making the case for an improved pay deal next year. ‘We do need to think about what’s the right approach for next year,’ he said. ‘Of course that’s a conversation we will have with the unions, with the pay review bodies, as we think about the right pay settlements.’

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.

10am: NHS England, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, the GMB and the College of Paramedics give evidence to the Commons health committee about the ambulance strikes.

11.30am: Downing Street holds its lobby briefing.

11.30am: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.

After 12.30pm: MPs hold a debate on the forthcoming adjournment, which allows them to raise any topic they want.

3pm: Sunak takes questions from the Commons liaision committee.

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