Fears of further crippling NHS strikes as insiders claim nurses are set to reject latest pay rise

Nurses are expected to reject ministers’ latest pay offer tomorrow when ballot results are revealed.

Members of the Royal College of Nursing are voting on a deal to avoid further strikes that would have given them a 5 per cent rise this financial year plus a one-off bonus averaging 6 per cent.

Sources told The Times it is likely that the offer, which ministers insist is final, will be rejected by a narrow margin, with some saying 55 per cent voted against acceptance – even though the ballot was open until 9am today.

That could mean more strikes next month and a fresh vote on further action. Unison, which represents ambulance workers and other frontline staff, will announce tomorrow whether its members have accepted the same deal.

Pat Cullen, the union’s general secretary and chief executive, had previously praised the government’s deal as ‘real tangible progress’.

The RCN has not ruled out returning to the picket line before their strike mandate expires in May, meaning the union could hold a fresh ballot strike into the autumn

Although voting continues until 9am on Friday, an NHS source told the Times: ‘It’s not looking good.’

Barclay has described the deal as giving staff ‘a fair pay rise while protecting our commitment to halve inflation’.

But campaigners from NHS Workers Say No, a grassroot organisation within the health service, are said to be furious that the deal was below the 19 per cent rise demanded when the RCN began its first strike in December.

A health source said: ‘Many just genuinely don’t think it’s fair and had very high expectations going into industrial action.’

Nurses could return to the picket line as soon as this month to force further concessions from the Government.

The RCN has not ruled out returning to the picket line before their strike mandate expires in May, meaning the union could hold a fresh ballot strike into the autumn.

Meanwhile, Unison – which represents ambulance workers and other frontline staff – will also reveal today whether its members have accepted the same deal.

Sara Gorton, Unison’s head of health, called it ‘the best to be achieved through negotiation’, recommending that members approve.

The dispute over nurses pay comes as junior doctors across England continue a four-day strike in a dispute about wages.