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Theresa May has come under fire for telling nurses “there is no magic money tree” to increase their pay as living costs continue to rise.
The Prime Minister was responding to a member of the audience at an election special of BBC Question Time , who asked: “My wage slips from 2009 reflect exactly what I'm earning today. How can that be fair, in the light of the job that we do?“
Another nurse said the 1 per cent cap on annual public sector pay rises had meant a real-terms decrease in his salary of 14 per cent since 2010, adding: “So don't tell us we're getting a pay rise.”
The Prime Minister said she recognised the job done by NHS staff but that “hard choices” had to be made across the public sector.
"We did that because of the decisions we had to take to bring public spending under control, because it wasn't under control under the last Labour government," she added.
"And I'm being honest with you in terms of saying that we will put more money into the NHS, but there isn't a magic money tree that we can shake that suddenly provides for everything that people want."
Ms May repeated the phrase, which was also used by Amber Rudd when she represented the Tories in a previous BBC debate, when challenged on the issue.
UK General Election 2017Show all 47 1 /47UK General Election 2017 UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street for the 1922 committee on June 12, 2017 in London, England. British Prime Minister Theresa May held her first cabinet meeting with her re-shuffled team today
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UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 DUP leader Arlene Foster stands alongside deputy leader Nigel Dodds as they hold a press conference at Stormont Castle as the Stormont assembly power sharing negotiations reconvene following the general election on June 12, 2017 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Discussions between the DUP and the Conservative party are also continuing in the wake of the UK general election as Prime Minister Theresa May looks to form a government with the help of the Democratic Unionist parties ten Westminster seats. Stormont and the political situation in Northern Ireland has been in limbo following the collapse of the power sharing executive due to the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme scandal which implicated the DUP
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UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Priti Patel, International Development Secretary leaves 10 Downing Street
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UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Larry the Downing Street cat runs ahead of Michael Fallon Britain's Secretary of State for Defence as he arrives for a cabinet meeting at Downing Street in London, Britain, June 12, 2017. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth
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UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Michael Gove, Environment Secretary leaves 10 Downing Street on June 12, 2017 in London, England. British Prime Minister Theresa May held her first cabinet meeting with her re-shuffled team today
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UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Scottish National Party Leader Nicola Sturgeon (C) leaves after speaking to the media in Parliament Square.
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UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May (C, L) holds the first Cabinet meeting of her new team.
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UK General Election 2017 11 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May attends church in her constituency with her husband Philip May, a few days after disappointing results in a general election.
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UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the Conservative Party's headquarters in London
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UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May flanked by her husband Philip delivers a statement outside 10 Downing Street in central Londo
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UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May leaves Buckingham Palace in London the day after a general election in which the Conservatives lost their majority
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UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 A TV cameraman watches the door of 10 Downing Street in London
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UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is greeted by his Office Director Karie Murphy as he arrives at Labour Party HQ in Westminster, London, after he called on the Prime Minister to resign, saying she should 'go and make way for a government that is truly representative of this country'
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UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the Conservative Party's headquarters with her husband Philip in London
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The moderator, David Dimbleby, asked whether the Prime Minister could “sleep happily”, adding: ”Do you think it is fair that the nurses get just a 1% increase year in, year out, regardless of inflation, so they get poorer, so some of them we're told go to food banks?”
An audience member accused Ms May of “cutting NHS spending while cutting tax for the rich”.
“We have to make sure that we are managing our money carefully because at the end of the day there isn't a magic money tree that suddenly delivers all the money everybody wants for the spending everybody wants,” she responded.
Her comments provoked strong criticism on social media, where critics pointed out that there wasn't’t a “magic nurse tree, a magic doctor tree, a magic policeman tree or a magic teacher tree” either.
Others called the Prime Minister “callous and incompetent”, saying her response was a “disgrace”.
Jeremy Corbyn, who was grilled separately after the Prime Minister refused to attend head-to-head debates, came under fire over Trident, anti-Semitism and whether he regards the IRA as a terrorist group.
An audience member said it was “disconcerting” that the Labour leader refused to say whether he would launch a retaliatory nuclear strike in the event of an attack.
"I would view the idea of having to use a nuclear weapon as something that was resulting in a failure in the whole world's diplomatic system,” Mr Corbyn said.
"There has to be no first use, there has to be a process of engagement to bring about, ultimately, global nuclear disarmament. It's not going to happen quickly, it's not going to happen easily, but we have to have that wish."
He was also forced to defend the Labour Party's failure to expel Ken Livingstone for allegedly anti-Semitic remarks and quizzed on whether its manifesto is "just a letter to Santa Claus".
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