Pay up for our nurses

OUR MPs have a golden opportunity today and tomorrow to vote for nurses, teachers and precious public services.

Austerity was always a political choice, never an economic necessity, and this is a time for elected representatives to stand up and be counted. The heroes will be those who vote in Parliament to lift the crippling public pay cap, and invest in health, education, social care and services that knit communities together.

The villains will be the Neanderthals who vote to sustain a failed policy, driving staff out of the NHS and schools at the cost of our health and education.

If Theresa May is able to find £1billion of taxpayers’ money to buy the votes of 10 Northern Ireland Democratic Unionist MPs, she must also find resources for public services in England, Wales and Scotland – or be forever shown as a prize hypocrite.

Mrs May has saved her job and now we must save nurses, teachers, firefighters, police officers, soldiers, council workers, civil servants and all the others who do jobs far more useful, and much less harmful, than hers.