The NHS pay deal isn't the triumph Sunak's allies claim

The proposed pay settlement for 1.2 million NHS staff, including nurses and ambulance workers, is welcome but could and should have happened in early January.

- ANDREW GRICE

Whitehall sources tell me that Steve Barclay, the health secretary, wanted a deal then like the one that has now been announced for England: a one-off payment worth 2 per cent of salary plus a bonus of at least £1,250 for the 2022-23 financial year and a permanent 5 per cent uplift for the year beginning next month. The agreement has to be accepted by union members but their leaders, with the exception of Unite, are recommending it.

Two months ago the health secretary's move was blocked by the Treasury, and Rishi Sunak sided with Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor. "Steve Barclay could see that we would need to make a one-off cost of living payment for the current financial year," one insider said. "This could have happened earlier." Sunak allies are trumpeting his role in last night's breakthrough as another sign of his calm, forensic, pragmatic style of government, which has momentum after genuine successes on the Northern Ireland protocol, his love-in with Emmanuel Macron and the Aukus defence pact with the US and Australia.

Tory MPs hope that an end to NHS strikes will remove one sign that "Britain isn't working", a pervading sense some fear will cost their party the next election by underlining Labour's "time for change" message.