NHS nurses have voted for the first time in 106 years to back industrial strike action over disputes with the government over a pay increase. 

This follows as the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) requested a 17.6 per cent rise and was told by the Government it is "simply not reasonable". 

Downing Street added that they were "deeply regrettable" and that the pay increase demand, which comes with a £9 billion price tag, was simply "not deliverable".

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris added it to be "difficult to judge" whether nurses were being paid enough and believed that their job was simply a "vocation" 

The RCN feels that current NHS services are "not safe," and has accused governments of not listening to their concerns.

Harris added by stating public sector finances were "not in the best of shapes" but continued- "Everything the government is doing across the whole of public sector pay, which is the only pay sector that we can influence, is aiming at the lower-paid and the more vulnerable in society. So we understand that we need to help people a bit more."

He stated that the NHS pay review panel has handed at least "1,400 raises to 1 million NHS staff this year, comparable to 4.5% for most nurses.

He said- "I want people in public service to be rewarded appropriately, everybody else does as well. But there's a much wider economic context as well."

According to Patricia Marquis, unions director for England, strike action is intended to occur before the end of the year and to organise strikes which will run until early May 2023, six months after members finish voting.