CLAPPED OUT Retired for just 24hrs

Medics protest at Downing Street yesterday

BORIS Johnson left the door open to a U-turn on NHS pay yesterday after furious medics descended on Downing Street vowing to strike unless they get a fair rise.

The Government has been hit by a huge backlash over plans for a real-terms wage cut for health workers exhausted by their heroics on the Covid-19 front line.

It has offered a measly 1% rise – in reality a cut with inflation due to hit 1.5% – sparking warnings of industrial action and an exodus of “demoralised” staff.

PM Mr Johnson, whose life was saved by the health service when he fell ill with coronavirus, made his first comments on the row on a visit to a vaccination centre in Brent, North West London.

He said the 1% was a recommendation – with a review body due to state its preferred level later this year. Mr Johnson went on to claim he was “massively grateful” to NHS and care workers.

He said: “What we have done is try to give them as much as we can.

“The independent pay review body will obviously look at what we’ve proposed and come back.”

His comments mean staff could land an increase greater than 1%.

It will be up to ministers to decide whether to follow the review body’s verdict, due in May.

Royal College of Nursing general secretary Dame Donna Kinnair said: “Boris Johnson is still failing to understand the situation he has stumbled into

– more of these warm words for nurses are not going to cut it.

“When there are already tens of thousands of unfilled nurse jobs in the NHS, he’s pushing more to the door this weekend.

The Prime Minister must put his money where his mouth is.”

Unison head of health Sara Gorton said Mr Johnson “of all people” should know the value of NHS staff and urged people to join the “slow hand clap” protest against the pay proposal, planned for Thursday.

She said: “He should admit his Government has got this very wrong and think again. NHS staff are demor

A NURSE retired for just 24 hours after 44 years – then returned to the front line to give hundreds of coronavirus vaccines. Suzanne Medows, 62, carried out the first jab in the North East and has been awarded the Chief Nursing Officer Gold Medal.

The Newcastle medic, inset, said: “I retired on November 30 but I was back on December 2 so it was a very short retirement.”