A BRIT AWKWARD
MINISTER SQUIRMS AS HE REBUFFS DUA LIPA PLEA FOR NHS RISE
CABINET minister George Eustice faced an awkward interview yesterday after Dua Lipa used her Brit Awards speech to call for an NHS pay rise.
The environment secretary was in the hot seat on BBC Breakfast after Lipa said Boris Johnson should give front-line workers a ‘fair pay rise’ – not the proposed one per cent and claps. Left squirming, Mr Eustice said: ‘There’s been a pay freeze for most of the public sector and it’s also important to recognise that in recent years that there have been some pay rises as well, particularly for nurses and the lower paid.’
He added: ‘We know that it is a difficult public finance environment as well, so we can’t always go as far as you’d like but it’s also the case that there’s also a pay review that’s going on into the NHS.’ Lipa (pictured) was the big winner at the female-dominated Brit Awards, which marked the return of live music to the O2 Arena after a year and was attended by hundreds of NHS key workers. She won both best female solo artist and the best album award.
In her first speech, she said: ‘It’s very good to clap for them (NHS workers), but we need to pay them. I think what we should do is we should all give a massive, massive round of applause and give Boris (Johnson) a message that we all support a fair pay rise for our front line.’
Asked if he accepted that a one per cent pay increase amounts to a cut because of a likely inflation rise, Mr Eustice said: ‘If it is lower than inflation then yes... in real terms it is not an increase. But it is an increase in cash terms and that is, as I say, one of the few areas of the public sector that have seen an increase.’