...as £4bn cuts loom to fund rises

STEVE Barclay has been ordered to make cuts to help pay for a salary hike for NHS workers amid a row over where the money will come from.

The Health Secretary will need to find an additional £ billion within existing budgets to fund a new pay offer to nurses, ambulance workers and physiotherapists. The Treasury may step in with some new funding if cost-cutting and re-directing existing spending isn’t enough to reach the figure. Downing Street yesterday confirmed the new offer will require an extra £2.7billion for this year (2022-23) and £1.3billion for next (2023-2 ).

Mr Barclay is understood to believe that money is still being wasted on unnecessary NHS bureaucracy and that more can be axed to unlock funds. There may also be pots of money in certain areas, such as funding or research, which have been underspent.

But a No 10 spokesman stressed that frontline and patient-facing services would not be impacted by the cuts.