'Disgusting' wealthy Tory MP accuses nurses using food banks of 'not budgeting properly'

A Tory MP has accused nurses using food banks of not budgeting properly.

The NCR called Simon Clarke's rude comments "disgusting and out of place".

The nurses are on strike again. After years of real pay cuts and rising costs of living, many nurses are struggling to make ends meet and are even turning to food banks just to survive.

But today the wealthy Clarke rubbed salt on his wounds by accusing hard-line NHS workers of failing to properly manage their dwindling personal budgets.

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, who earns £84,000 a year as an MP, sparked fury with his comments. They came as nurses began a 48-hour strike over pay and were even joined on the picket lines by patients, including one who was terminally ill.

Mr. Clarke, who backed Liz Truss in her bid for prime minister before she blew up the economy with her mini-budget, said: "If you use food banks and your average salary is 35,000 £ a year, then something is wrong with your budget because £35,000 is not a salary you want to rely on on food banks.

NHS staff at Ealing Hospital in London (

Picture:

PENNSYLVANIA)

"This debate has gotten out of hand, the average salary for a nurse is £35,000 and senior nurses earn up to around £47,000."

The MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland and former secretary of Leveling Up has been called 'ignorant and out of touch' by nurses in his own constituency. And if he was right on the average salary, that takes into account the salary of senior nurses while many less experienced staff are paid between £20,270 and £27,055 depending on their bracket.

Standing on the picket line outside James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, children's nurse Siobhan Patterson, 33, asked: 'Why didn't MPs turn down their last pay rise? They should keep the same salary and a better budget.