Nurses offer to call off strikes if Sunak matches Welsh pay offer

Union appeals to prime minister to compromise to avert massive disruption

The head of the UK's biggest nursing union has issued a last ditch appeal to Rishi Sunak to agree a compromise over pay, to prevent the worst strikes in the NHS's history from causing massive disruption to patients across England on Monday.

In a letter to the prime minister, Pat Cullen, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said she was appealing directly" to Sunak for the first time as she asked him to match offers made by the Welsh and Scottish governments, both of which have led to strikes being suspended.