Green MEP backs nurses as strike action looms closer

Keith Taylor, Green Party MEP for the south east, backed Sunday’s decision by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) to pursue a ballot for UK-wide strike action this summer in protest at below-inflation pay rises.

Nearly four out of five members of the college took part in the consultative vote, with 91 per cent favouring industrial action short of a strike.

Mr Taylor said: ‘Nurses have not reached this decision lightly. Almost a decade of pay cuts and massive staff shortages have forced them to this point. As a Green, I stand in solidarity with nurses and offer them my full support in this decision. Nurses are dangerously overstretched and grossly underpaid.’

The RCN has warned that low pay is partly responsible for tens of thousands of unfilled posts.

A further ballot will be required before any industrial action will be given the green light.