Hampshire's Amanda Holden labels 1% pay rise for NHS staff 'an absolute travesty'

The television presenter, 50, who was born in Portsmouth, said the workers kept the country going through a ‘hugely trying time’.

The Britain’s Got Talent judge said the pay rise is ‘pointless’ and ‘an absolute travesty for our beloved NHS who along with many other key workers have kept the very core of our kingdom going through out this hugely trying time’.

Holden added: ‘We clapped them, we praised them, we thanked them.

‘Now let’s show them ..the money.’

On Friday, health minister Nadine Dories defended the government’s recommendation of a 1 per cent pay rise for NHS workers in England.

She told Sky: ‘Everybody in an ideal world would love to see nurses paid far more… but we are coming out of a pandemic where we have seen huge borrowing and costs to the government.

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‘I think it is important to note that the priority of the Government has been about protecting people’s livelihoods, about continuing the furlough scheme, about fighting the pandemic, and we’ve put huge effort into that.

‘We do not want nurses to go unrecognised – or doctors – and no other public sector employee is receiving a pay rise, there has been a pay freeze.

‘But the 1 per cent offer is the most we think we can afford which we have put forward to the pay review body.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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