TORY Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt faced a growing NHS storm yesterday with hundreds of thousands more workers in England balloted over wages and plummeting public trust in the government’s stewardship of the service.

Around 350,000 health workers in union Unison will begin voting today on strike action that could see them link up with colleagues in GMB and Unite in an October walkout.

It follows the Mr Hunt’s shock decision to sideline the service’s pay review body’s suggested 1 per cent rise and instead offer nothing to six in 10 staff.

Unison general secretary David Prentis urged members to vote Yes in the ballot.

“Voting for strike action is never an easy decision — even more so for NHS workers who spend their lives caring for people,” he said.

“But the government’s refusal to give the vast majority any pay increase this year is a slap in the face.”

New research from campaign group 38 Degrees found a quarter of people’s trust in the Tories’ stewardship of the NHS had fallen over the past year.

The group is gearing up for Britain-wide action tomorrow over government backing for the dangerous US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership deal, which threatens to give US health firms the right to bid to run all areas of the NHS and the right to sue if a government doesn’t let them.

“Most of us only need to take one look at American healthcare to know that that isn’t what we want in this country,” said 38 Degrees campaign director Blanche Jones.

A Department of Health spokesman said it was “disappointed” that unions were balloting for industrial action.