Rob Corp
Live reporter

We're wrapping up our live coverage of Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg for this week after another busy morning, where the issue around nurses' strikes was front and centre.

As you'll notice, our previous post by Marita gives an overview of the key moments from the show, during which we heard from union chief Pat Cullen, as well as the government and opposition.

Laura Kuenssberg has also given her assessment on what we learned, writing that from the hour-long discussion, there doesn’t seem much chance of averting a much more serious nurses’ strike.

If you want to keep up to date on the latest news on the strikes, you can read our main story here. And as ever, you can watch the programme back on BBC iPlayer.

Today's page was brought to you by Alexandra Fouché and Marita Moloney with me in the editor's chair. Thanks for joining us.

Marita Moloney
Live reporter

Nurses' strikes and the problems facing the NHS dominated this week's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. Let's take stock of what we heard during the show:

Higher pay: RCN chief Pat Cullen reiterated the union's calls for a better deal for NHS nurses in England, after a revised pay offer was rejected on Friday.

Strikes until Christmas: She urged the government to come to the negotiating table, and said nurses could strike until Christmas if they cannot reach a deal on pay.

Co-ordinated action: Cullen said there were no plans in place to co-ordinate strikes with junior doctors belonging to the BMA medical union but did not rule out taking action at the same time.

Government response: Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands said the offer to nurses - accepted by Unison members - was "very fair and reasonable" and the health secretary's door was "always open".

Labour plans: Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting would not say whether a 10% pay rise for the nurses would be affordable for his party, adding he was "fed up" of being asked how he would fix Conservative problems "tomorrow".

'Ugly situation': Saffron Cordery of NHS Providers was on the panel listening to all three interviews. She said it felt like an "ugly situation" to have strikes until Christmas, adding unions and the government "desperately need" to come to the negotiating table and find a solution because rolling strikes in the NHS were "unsustainable".

Image source, PA Media

Laura Kuenssberg
Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

From the last hour of discussion there doesn’t seem much chance of averting a much more serious nurses’ strike.

The RCN leader, Pat Cullen, made it clear there needs to be a new and improved offer from the government to call off the action, and was clearly frustrated by a last-minute letter from Health Secretary Steve Barclay at 8.30 this morning.

There is no chance at the moment she will pause the strikes which could last all the way until Christmas.

Cabinet Minister Greg Hands was equally firm that the government will not budge, at least until the remaining health unions have had their say on the deal.

He tried instead to emphasise that the agreement they’d brokered was backed initially by the RCN leadership, and was in his view, fair.

The worry for patients and the wider public is that with nurses saying no, more serious strike action is on the way, with a possibility that walk outs could happen at the same time that junior doctors are on the picket line.

That’s a situation health bosses don’t want to contemplate. Ongoing industrial action is "unsustainable" according to Saffron Cordery of NHS Providers.

The Liberal Democrats have responded to Greg Hands' interview with Laura Kuenssberg.

The party's health spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP says: “The warning of rolling strikes between now and Christmas must act as a wake-up call.

“Conservative ministers need to urgently get round the negotiating table and find a solution instead of sitting on the sidelines.

"Patients should not have to pay the price for this Conservative government’s failure through yet more cancelled operations and delays to treatment.”

Turning to last night's announcement that there will be no new smart motorways in England, Tory chair Greg Hands confirms the government will not increase their numbers.

"We will not approve any new smart motorways, clearly as a result of public concern and safety concern. We're going to keep a close eye on the situation, with the existing smart motorways."

Image source, PA Media

Tory Party chairman Greg Hands is next asked about one of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s five pledges - to bring waiting lists down. How will the government do that if you’ve got rolling strikes in the NHS? Kunessberg asks him.

The strikes have not helped in reducing waiting lists, Hands says. The government is getting to grips with them, he adds, and it's a "real focus" for Steve Barclay and the PM.

"We think it's unreasonable to take the strike action, particularly at a time when the other unions are balloting," he says.

Kuenssberg then presses Hands on another priority for the prime minister, that being to halve inflation this year.

Nobody said that it's going to be easy to tame inflation, he says. Inflation is driven principally by higher energy prices as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he adds.

"We are still working very hard at delivering the five priorities," Hands says.

Speaking for the government this morning is Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands, who says the government's offer to nurses is fair and reasonable.

He says the government's pay offer represents £5,100 extra for a band five nurse - a typical ward level nurse - including a cash payment of £2,000, he says.

With the country facing a continuing wave of industrial action, Hands is asked what the government is doing to settle the various pay disputes.

He says the government will wait to see what the other health service unions involved in the disputes say, because Unison has accepted the pay offer. Unite and the GMB have yet to come back with a decision on strike action, but they are expected to give their response this month.

Hands dismisses the RCN's portrayal of Health Secretary Steve Barclay's level of engagement with the dispute - saying his door is always open.

He also is asked how this affects Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's pledge to cut NHS waiting lists.

We are dealing with the waiting list problem as a result of the pandemic, Hands says, adding "we're getting to grips with that".

We're hearing from our panel now, and Mark Bailie, CEO of Compare the Market, is asked as an employer, how would he tackle this dispute?

He said he approached a pay rise for his staff last year by looking at what the cost of inflation was in pound notes for individuals and "it's absolutely clear that the people bearing the brunt of inflation are the people who are earning less than the average salary in the UK".

Getting in a place where getting real wages to rise is going to be hard, he adds.

Economist and journalist Stephanie Flanders says she is "pretty confident" that inflation will come under 10% when new figures are released this week.

"When inflation falls remember you still got the higher prices if your wages haven't kept up - that hits your cost of living," she adds.

Saffron Cordery of NHS Providers was listening to Kuenssberg's interviews with Pat Cullen and Wes Streeting - and the likelihood of more strikes by nurses in the months to come.

"We are in that really difficult situation - it's really clear to me that it is not sustainable for the NHS to manage strike action," Cordery says.

"It feels like an ugly situation to say we're going to have strikes from now until Christmas.

"We really desperately need the government to come to the table, alongside the unions coming to the table, to sort this out."

Wes Streeting is next pressed on how Labour would fix the issue if the party was in government.

Kunessberg puts it to him that he's previously said 19%, the original pay rise sought by nurses, would be unaffordable. Would you afford 10%, she asks?

Streeting says he doesn't want to discuss negotiations on air, and declines to answer whether 10% would be appropriate as Labour are not currently in government.

"I'm fed up of coming on programmes and being asked how I, a Labour spokesperson, would fix Conservative problems," he says.

He accuses the government of not having a plan and says Labour are setting out some substantial answers to make sure "we're not here again and again".

This far out from the election Streeting says he wants to address "the fundamental things we need to fix about the NHS".

He concludes that people can judge Labour on its record when it was last in government.

This is not abstract, he says, but record low waiting times, patient satisfaction, sustained year after year investment and fair pay for staff came about because Labour got the economy growing.

Turning now to Labour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, who says he is "really worried" about the strike action by nurses, especially the decision to remove the derogation over emergency care and cancer care, saying "it's a real risk to patient safety".

"I think the dereliction of leadership from the government this week has been appalling," he says.

"We've barely seen or heard anything from the health secretary."

He says he doesn't back the strike action, because of the risk to patients' safety.

"I understand why they're in this position, when you've got a government that tells nurses that they're helping Vladimir Putin by going on strike," he says.

It's not surprising they don't have a great deal of goodwill towards the government - especially when you have the health secretary writing in the Sun as if he's writing an agony aunt column and as if he is a passive observer.

Kuenssberg asks if there is any point at which Cullen might step back from action because the risk to the NHS just felt too great.

The risks are there, not just on the day of strike action but growing every single day, she says.

Patients deserve better, the public of this country deserve better and that's for the government to step up and ministers and look at seriously, she says.

The health secretary and the government need to go around the negotiating table "very quickly", Cullen continues.

"And start to put more money on the table, start treat nurses with a bit of decency and a bit of respect. That's not going to be hard to do, but they need to put money on the table," she says.

Kuenssberg reads a comment from Clint Cooper, a nurse at Scarborough Hospital who says he shares the concerns of colleagues but isn’t going to take part in the next strike.

"Last week I had two patients who were very poorly and I wonder if I hadn't been there and escalated it, would they still be alive if I had walked out and that's my conscience talking to me."

Cullen says patients are at risk every day in this health service, not just on days when we're taking strike action, she says. They are taking action to highlight the risk.

Nurses are battling every day in the service, in a service that is underfunded; they are dealing with a high level of risk, the RCN chief tells the programme.

They can no longer take the risk and the pressure, she adds.

There are no plans in place to co-ordinate strike with junior doctors, she adds.

Pat Cullen is asked next about a letter Health Secretary Steve Barclay has sent to the RCN this morning.

Its interesting that it's taken him days to respond to my letter calling for urgent talks, she says, and just half an hour before coming on today's Kuenssberg programme.

It's disrespectful to nurses, Cullen says, adding that the letter " says very little" and the health secretary has spent longer writing in the Sun newspaper today than he spent responding to nurses.

She asks Barclay to respect nurses and work towards getting a resolution.

Cullen is next asked if she accepts that the strikes - involving NHS nurses in emergency departments, intensive care, cancer and other wards - will put very sick people’s lives more at risk.

The RCN chief adds that they will not pause strike action to hold talks with the government saying they have a mandate until the beginning of May and will ballot again to seek members' backing for new strikes.

"If that ballot is successful it will mean further strike action right up until Christmas," she says.

Asked why her members rejected the government's new pay deal for nurses in England, the RCN's Pat Cullen tells Kuenssberg her members believed this deal was "neither fair nor reasonable".

The one-off bonus was probably a bribe in their eyes, she says, and it's not going to fix the long-term problems of the health service.

You thought it was fair says Kuenssberg, but Cullen says she is directed by members.

She says they cannot establish whether the money offered will stay on the table. She adds she believes it is the right decision to reject the offer

We need to fix the health service, we need to fix the problems in nursing, she adds.

The one-off payment has been described as a Covid bonus.

The government has described the rejection of their pay deal by RCN members as "hugely disappointing".

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said in a statement that following "constructive discussions, all parties agreed this was a fair and generous offer". This was demonstrated by Unison choosing to accept the deal, they added.

The agreement accepted by Unison members was a 5% pay rise for 2023-24 and an extra one-off lump sum of at least £1,655 to top up the past year's salary.

“The fact that the Royal College of Nursing has announced an escalation in strike action with no derogations, based on a vote from the minority of the nursing workforce, will be hugely concerning for patients," the spokesperson added.

Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg is live now on BBC One, the BBC News Channel, BBC iPlayer and here on this page.

Expect questions to the politicians on a range of issues, including the upcoming nurses’ bank holiday strike and their demand for a better pay offer.

You can follow the programme live by clicking the Play button at the top of this page.

As we’ve mentioned this morning, RCN general secretary Pat Cullen is the first guest on the programme to talk about the nurses’ strike and the pay offer they rejected.

She says the government needs to increase what has already been offered, and that until there is a significantly improved offer, RCN nurses will be forced to go back on the picket line.

Controversy surrounding Saturday's Grand National - notably when animal rights activists were able to get on to the course at Aintree - dominates many of Sunday's front pages, with several also reporting on the nurses' strikes.

The Sunday Telegraph reports that "hypocritical" activists failed to stop the race. The paper's main story focuses on news that the government has scrapped plans to build 14 new smart motorways due to a lack of public confidence.

The Observer leads with what it calls a deepening crisis within the NHS, reporting that the Royal College of Nursing - the largest nursing union in England - will ballot its members on whether to join a "mega strike" that would include every hospital trust in the country.

The deaths of 650 patients at the hands of a surgeon who conducted "hundreds of unnecessary and inappropriate operations" are being investigated, reports The Sunday Times.

The Sunday Express says the Royal Family is on the "brink of collapse", reporting on a study by a UK think tank which says the monarchy is at risk of becoming "too distant" from the nation.

• You can read a full review of Sunday's newspapers here

Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg is due up at the top of the hour, and you can watch the programme without leaving this page by clicking the Play button in the picture above.

Stay with us on this page for the latest news lines, quotes and video clips as we follow the show, which this week features Pat Cullen of the RCN, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, Carole Mundell of the European Space Agency on its Juice mission to Jupiter and Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands.

Image source, EPA

Away from the nurses' strikes briefly and to the postal service, where Royal Mail and union negotiators have reached an agreement which could signal the end of a long-running pay dispute.

The company and the Communication Workers Union have reached an "in principle" agreement over pay and employment terms.

The CWU's executive will meet next week to consider the deal, which if accepted, will then be voted on by union members.

Royal Mail workers staged a series of walkouts last year, including in the lead-up to Christmas.

Earlier this month, talks between the unions and Royal Mail collapsed and the CWU pulled back from announcing fresh strikes.

Around 115,000 CWU members working for Royal Mail have been in dispute over pay since the spring of 2022, when workers were offered a 5.5% pay rise,

The CWU said that in real terms, the offer was equivalent to a 2% increase, with workers squeezed by inflation and the cost of living crisis.