Lincoln’s Conservative MP Karl McCartney said the campaign for a 12.5% pay rise for nurses is “far in excess of being realistic and that’s certainly one for the fairies”.
The MP was speaking on BBC Politics North on Sunday, February 28. Presenter Tim Iredale said the Royal College of Nursing is campaigning for the pay rise, and asked McCartney if Chancellor Rishi Sunak should commit to that during the budget on Wednesday, March 3.
The MP said: “No, I don’t think he should. That’s a union doing the best for their members and you can’t blame them, but 12.5% is far in excess of being realistic and that’s certainly one for the fairies.”
Lincoln nurse Mel Kerr asked her MP if he feels the current pay for healthcare workers truly recognises the skill and responsibility that they face on a daily basis.
Karl responded by saying: “In the main, I think it does. Obviously we’d all like to pay our health services more, but that would obviously cause more inflation, and at this point in time after the current pandemic obviously there’s various calls on the monies available to the chancellor as we come towards the budget.
“All sorts of different taxes might have to rise to enable public sector employees to be paid more, so at this point in time it is a very fine balancing act.”
His response frustrated the Lincoln nurse and Mel said: “It really saddens me to think that my MP could be so dismissive of the pleas of his staff in his constituency when we say that enough is enough.
“We need true recognition and true renumeration for everything we have done for this country and he responds in a manner like that. To me that’s truly really unprofessional and quite offensive if I’m being brutally honest.”
Mel also previously spoke to The Lincolnite about the pressures of the coronavirus pandemic on the tense hospital wards.
Karl McCartney was asked by The Lincolnite to expand on his responses from the recent BBC interview.
He said: “NHS staff are playing an integral part of the national effort to combat coronavirus – and we owe them a great deal of gratitude for all that they do.
“I know the government is committed to supporting all staff now and in the future. Its unwavering support for frontline staff predates this unprecedented challenge.
“In addition to the 6.5% pay rise over the three years, the starting salary for newly qualified nurses has also increased by more than 12% and the government has introduced a nurses’ bursary which provides at least £5,000 of additional support to nursing students.
“The fight against coronavirus is a national effort, and my colleagues and I are committed to giving NHS staff the additional support they need throughout it.”
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A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
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