NURSES are “living in poverty and many are quitting because they can no longer afford to stay” in the austerity-hit NHS, the world’s biggest nursing union warned today as it demanded Tory ministers reopen pay talks.

Nurses rejected the government’s latest below-inflation deal in England because it “isn’t sufficient to address those really critical issues,” Royal College of Nursing head Pat Cullen charged at the union’s 2023 conference in Brighton.

The package, consisting of a one-off payment for 2022-23 and 5 per cent for the current financial year, was voted down by both RCN and Unite members in ballots last month.