UNIONS accused ministers of betraying NHS workers after they announced a below-inflation 3.3 per cent pay rise next April today.

More than 1.4 million NHS nurses, paramedics, midwives and hospital porters will be left worse off by the “act of political cowardice and financial betrayal of NHS workers,” said Unite.

The government imposed the pay award recommended by the discredited Pay Review Body (PRB) process which most health unions boycotted in favour of direct talks with the government last September.

Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham said: “It beggars belief that a Labour government should seek to ride roughshod over the health unions when deciding on NHS pay.

“For too long, NHS workers have been overworked, underpaid and undervalued.

“Today’s announcement will simply increase the problems of low pay that has seen thousands of healthcare workers leave, worsening the recruitment and retention crisis in our NHS.”

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) defended the rise as above the 2 per cent CPI inflation for the 2026-27 pay year forecast by the Bank of England, bragging that it will be the first time it will be delivered on time in six years.

But the RPI rate of inflation currently stands at 4.2 per cent and Unison’s head of health Helga Pile said: “Hard-pressed NHS staff will be downright angry at another below-inflation pay award.

“Having an increase on time for once is only small comfort. Ministers’ plans for the NHS stand or fall on having a stable, motivated workforce to deliver them.”

Royal College of Nursing general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger said: “A pay award below the current level of inflation is an insult. 

“Unions were misled to expect direct negotiations with government on the pay award, but NHS staff are getting the same poor treatment as before.”

Royal College of Midwives general secretary Gill Walton added: “Without fixing the unfair pay system, this real-terms pay cut is an insult to midwives who work 100,000 unpaid hours every week just to keep maternity services running.”

GMB national secretary Rachel Harrison welcomed the timely award but said that it “is just not enough to make up for more than a decade of pay cuts under the Tories.”