HEALTH unions demanded the government open pay talks as tens of thousands are expected to strike together today in the biggest health workers’ rebellion in NHS history.

Their unions — the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), GMB, Unison and Unite — say they have desperately sought pay talks with the government but have been rebuffed.

They denied a claim from Health Secretary Steve Barclay that the government is “in dialogue” with unions.

And in a sickening display of hypocrisy, millionaire Tory Business Secretary Grant Shapps said he is concerned that the strike by ambulance staff will put lives at risk — ignoring the 500 avoidable deaths caused every week by the Tories’ deliberate wrecking of the NHS.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham attacked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Mr Barclay for refusing to discuss pay.

“They’ve danced around their handbag, they danced around the edges but they will not talk about pay,” she said.

“To me, that is an abdication of responsibility. The dispute is about pay — so how can they say they are in talks?”

RCN general secretary Pat Cullen wrote to Mr Sunak over the weekend to say that a “meaningful” pay offer from the government could avert strike action.

She wrote: “I am urging you to use this weekend to reset your government in the eyes of the public and demonstrate it is on the side of the hard-working, decent taxpayer.

“There could be no simpler way to demonstrate this commitment than bringing the nurses’ strike to a swift close.”

Mr Shapps again falsely accused ambulance workers of failing to agree to levels of emergency cover during strike action.

He used the lie to support his plans to introduce statutory levels of cover during strikes, meaning strikers can be sacked if they refuse to work and their unions exposed to crippling damages claims.

The RCN’s Carmel O’Boyle said the current state of the NHS, with people dying “just waiting for ambulances”, means that “on a daily basis, this government has put people’s lives at risk.”

She said today’s strike would be “the biggest day of industrial action in the 75-year history of the NHS.”

“Nursing staff find that a sobering realisation of how far they have been pushed to protect patient care and secure some respect for the nursing profession,” she said.

GMB, representing almost 9,000 striking ambulance workers, said its members would stand alongside nurses on picket lines including in Brighton, Liverpool, Harrogate and Gateshead.

National secretary Rachel Harrison said: “Ambulance workers across England will walk out today in what could be the biggest strike the NHS has ever seen.

“It’s been almost a month since the government engaged in any meaningful dialogue — instead, they’ve wasted time attempting to smear ambulance workers.

“The NHS is crumbling, people are dying and this government is dithering.

“The public back ambulance workers. The government needs to wake up and talk pay now.”

The nurses want a pay rise equal to inflation plus 5 per cent.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said that a Labour government would raise £3 billion for the NHS through abolition of “non-dom” residential tax status for the super-rich — but would not promise to meet the nurses’ pay claim.

Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack, whose members have voted overwhelmingly for strike action, called on Labour to be “more clearly” on the side of workers.

“The Labour Party was created by workers’ organisations and you would hope that Labour MPs and Labour leaders and so on would see the justice of our cause,” he said.