LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressed his gratitude on Sunday to health workers, responding to criticism over his government’s pay proposal by saying he had tried to give the service as much as he could.
Johnson, who himself was treated in hospital last year when he became severely ill with Covid-19, has come under fire for failing to meet his promise to look after health workers who have been fighting a coronavirus pandemic for more than a year by proposing a 1 per cent pay increase for the National Health Service.
Earlier, Britain’s opposition Labour Party stepped up its criticism of the government’s budget, calling the pay offer to health workers “reprehensible” and pledging to vote against its freeze on income tax thresholds.
But Johnson defended his government by saying it was investing in the National Health Service and that “we have tried to give the NHS as much as we possibly can”.
Last week, his government set out its plans to help the economy weather the Covid-19 crisis, with Finance Minister Rishi Sunak promising to do “whatever it takes to support the British people and businesses”.
And while Johnson enjoys a large majority in the lower house of parliament, his Conservative government’s plans have come under fire for what some say is its targeting of lower- and middle-income earners and not being generous enough to health workers, after a year of battling the coronavirus pandemic.
Johnson, who was the face of Britain’s campaign to leave the European Union in a 2016 referendum, promoted what has become a disputed promise that Brexit would free up an extra £350 million a week for the NHS.
But in the budget, the government proposed the 1 per cent pay rise for NHS workers, an offer one nurses union, the Royal College of Nursing, called “pitiful” and has threatened to strike over.
Labour, which is flagging in opinion polls despite criticism of Johnson’s uneven handling of the pandemic, has called on the government to stand by what it said was an earlier commitment to hand NHS workers a 2.1 per cent pay increase. — Reuters
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