HARLOW Labour Leader Chris Vince has called for MP Robert Halfon to back Tory rebels and pay nurses more.

Cllr Vince said: “When the pandemic was at its worst,  residents of Harlow were united in standing on their doorsteps to clap for nurses and carers every Thursday.

We knew how hard they were working, often risking their own lives without proper PPE, and we were grateful for their sacrifice. But claps don’t pay the bills and it is shameful that we have seen fully trained health professionals having to use foodbanks, or choose between heating and eating.

For twelve years nurses have suffered from real terms wages cuts and that must stop. Two Conservative MPs have broken with the Prime Minister’s insistence that nurses receive another real terms pay cut this year and have called for the Government to make a new, much improved offer. It is time Harlow’s MP did the same.It is my view that, at the very least, nurses should be no worse off this year than last. It’s long overrdue for the Government, who found plenty of money for dodgy PPE that made huge profits for their cronies, to find the money for a decent pay offer and end the strikes”