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Only two per cent of Tory MPs contacted by the Sunday Mirror have vowed to back a pay rise for nurses.

We approached the 255 Conservatives who voted against lifting the public sector pay cap in 2017 and who are still MPs, to see if they will now support giving the NHS heroes better wages.

Only five replied to us saying they are in favour. We contacted the 250 others for a second day to give them another chance to pledge their support, but they didn’t even bother to respond.

It comes despite Boris Johnson having said nurses saved his life as he battled coronavirus in intensive care.

More than 40 frontline NHS staff have died of Covid-19 amid shortages of personal protective equipment.

Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “Mr Johnson should give our brave NHS staff a fair pay rise. The public demand it and staff deserve it.”

Dame Donna Kinnair, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “The work nurses do has not been fairly rewarded but the whole country can see their skill, compassion and bravery on full display as our health and social care services deal with Covid-19.”

(Image: 10 Downing Street/Getty)

Asked if he thinks nurses should be given a pay rise in recognition of their dedication and putting their lives on the line, Tory MP William Wragg told us: “Yes, they should is the short answer.”

And David Duguid said: “I think everyone [in] the UK agrees we owe our NHS staff an enormous debt of gratitude.”

Another colleague, Sir Roger Gale, said: “I very much hope and expect that within the bounds of affordability, under what will be very testing economic circumstances, the Government will give appropriate recognition not only to nurses but to all those who have dedicated their service to the NHS during the pandemic.”

Tim Loughton and Andrew Percy were the other Tories who told us of their support for nurses.

(Image: Getty)

The average salary for a nurse is £24,400, a cut of 8% based on the consumer price index – or £2,646 in real terms – since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, according to the Royal College of Nursing.

The man standing in for Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, has been asked about NHS pay as he led Downing Street briefings, but refused to make a cast-iron promise.

He said this month those working to tackle Covid-19 will be formally recognised, but stopped short of saying they will receive a pay deal.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said “now is not the time to discuss a pay rise for nurses”, but he added he is “sympathetic to the argument”.

(Image: Crown Copyright)

In June 2017 after the general election, Tory and DUP MPs voted down a Labour amendment to the Queen’s Speech which called for an end to the public sector pay cap.

The cap limited wage rises for the workers to 1% per year from 2013.

The amendment would not by itself have ended the pay ceiling, but would have increased pressure on the Government to lift it.

In 2018, the then Prime Minister Theresa May implemented a pay rise for nurses of 6.5 per cent on average over the course of three years, with the full top-up due to finally take effect in 2021.

But nurses say this small victory has still left many of them living on the breadline.

They add that even before the Covid-19 crisis, a decade of NHS underfunding left them struggling to cope with demand as the health service was brought to its knees.

(Image: Getty)

Among the cuts was the Government’s axing in 2016 of £6,000-a-year bursaries for student nurses and mid­­wives. The RCN said it was a “disaster” as nursing degree applications in England fell by 13,000 in three years.

With around 44,000 nursing vacancies left unfilled, union bosses said the fall in student numbers had put patient safety at risk.

Mr Johnson said in December he was reinstating the bursary, providing funding of at least £5,000 a year.

The Sunday Mirror also contacted the seven rem­­aining DUP MPs who voted against the 2017 call to end the pay cap. They all quickly came back to us saying they are in support of nurses getting a further pay rise.

Ian Paisley Jnr, whose daughter is a nurse, said: “Of course they should.”

Speaking on behalf of all seven, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said: “We would support a decent pay rise for NHS staff, including nurses, in recognition of their courageous work at this time.”

Minister for Care Helen Whately said last night: “Our nurses are on the front line of our national effort to combat coronavirus – and the whole country is standing behind them.”

She added there has been a rise of more than 12 per cent in the starting salary of newly qualified nurses.