Helen Whately MP has just said that

[Gilead]

'our health and social care workers are well paid for what they do'.

AIBU to think as care minister she needs to acquaint herself with the pay scales.

I think what she means is that if, like her, you lack any humanity whatsoever, you would think that care workers are paid well because there is no profit to be made from keeping vulnerable people alive and it’s very annoying that people no longer do this work for free.

I think by that point she just wanted to get out of there, it was terrible. Although to give her dues she stuck it out. And didn't do what I would have done and suddenly lose internet connection

The interview GMB did with Coffery yesterday wasn't much better. I also think that if that sort of attacking interview carries on. Not many more junior ministers are going to appear on the show

He has gone for her because she is a younger woman

Completely agree gin

Although it was cringe tv - and piers has been asking same questions all week so she was woefully unprepared

But people are mixing up health care and social care - different pay structures entirely and misquoting what she said

Concerning GPs, trainees may earn c£37k. Salaried FTE earn north of £50k after c 6 years medical school (and student loans), then foundation then GP training so c 11 years? Many GPs don't work all sessions but not because it's cushy PT working, mor likely either due to essential admin for which there isn't time in the sessions, burn out, running the practice or family caring. I wonder why so many practices struggle to recruit GP partners and salaried if it's so cushy?

But don't worry, Makeitgoaway, as GPs are 'certainly not badly paid', I'd expect the COVID cull of GPs (and ANPs and practice nurses) from no/inadequate/comedy restickered PPE will lead to a flood of new recruits and spaces for new entrants (though let's hope the c11 years of training for GPs and many years for ANPs) do't lead to reduced capacity for patients.

Piers is just as hard on older and male interviewees. She's a puppet.

buying think piers bullish manner was degrading

Irrelevant whataboutery.

As you said, she was shit on Sky and BBC too.

She is insulting us all by behaving in such an arrogant and out of touch manner.

@Namechanger0800 Rubbish - he has done equally hard interviews with male MPs/Ministers. Whately was not on top of her brief and had a car crash interview - you think politicians who are "younger women" should be given an easier ride?

Get her to do the job for a month and then ask her!

Therese Coffey was just as bad yesterday, care homes can reclaim VAT, can they? The other speaker said not and I assume unless they are VAT registered they can't. She needs calling out on that. Even if she was right how does she imagine the care homes can lay out the money on vast amounts of PPE plus VAT? The fees aren't increasing, they are taking pressure off the NHS by looking after people who would otherwise be in hospitals.

Care homes were closing before this, I fear for the sector after this.

Please tell me that she didn’t say this
I cannot believe the delusion.
Absolutely disgraceful

What a ridiculous thing to say. Care workers would get more for domestic cleaning work and not be expected to risk their lives every day caring for some of the most vulnerable people in society. I’d like to see her swap jobs for a month and then repeat that interview . Deluded, out of touch, don’t give a shit idiot.

@womenwotlunch, she didn’t quite. Bad interview with sensationalist reporting. There is the old question about worth of wages in the UK to answer though.

No he is always an arse in interviews but there's been plenty of incompetent male ministers he hasn't taken to task as badly as today's cringe tv

He was awful with Coffey yesterday as well which was bad enough and she was cringe tv too

I don't think he should go easier on younger women at all and all ministers should stop waffling and answer bloody questions even if that means admitting things could have been better

Piers Morgan was just asking the questions many of us would like to ask our leaders.
At the Govt briefings, mic's are muted to stop any awkward follow up questions... just stage managed PR.

Prior to this crisis i couldn't stand Piers Morgan but he is one of the few journalists putting our leaders on the spot and so far, they have all been woefully inadequate.... male or female.

The reality is that she was woefully unprepared.
She should have had statistics and evidence to challenge Piers Morgan’s questioning.
She should have known how much the average care worker earned and also how much those in senior positions( healthcare managers) earn. She didn’t

And she didn't say they were well paid - watch it again- she says she wants to support the government to ensure they are appropriately paid for what they do
No she didn't. I watched it twice. I rewound so that I could type the direct quote. She said they were well paid.

Lots of politicians won't go on TV to be interviewed by Piers because he asks the questions none of them want to answer. He is direct and forthright and they can't give a yes or no answer! She was very poor.

I don't think he should go easier on younger women at all and all ministers should stop waffling and answer bloody questions even if that means admitting things could have been better Amen to that. The arrogance is breathtaking, I would respect them so much more if they said, "Of course we did make mistakes, if we could go back we would do x y and z instead of a b and c but we are working our socks off to get it right now." Just avoiding the question is insulting to us all.

Slightly off topic but I wish someone one start a fund raising thing for the NHS where any politician who says unprecedented pays a £1,000 fine. Am I the only one sick of hearing it? The money for the NHS would be a bonus and I think I'd find it less irritating to hear it if I knew it was generating some money to support the NHS.

So all govt ministers please take note we are not stupid, we get it, it is unprecedented but stop using that as an excuse.

@WaterOffADucksCrack

Shocking. I've been working so muchbbecause the care home is short staffed now. I'm salaried at 21k per year as the manager and won't get paid any extra for overtime

FMD. That's a complete disgrace!! Is that public or private??

We can drop her salary to match.

Well if they are so well paid for what they do maybe she can roll her sleeves up and help out in this crisis. She won’t get PPE though, why should she when no one else does 😡

He has gone for her because she is a younger woman

Thats totally untrue.
I'm not a fan of Piers Morgan or the Tories for that matter, but to say that is just lies.
Hes acted the exact same way with many Male mps.

Well if they are so well paid for what they do maybe she can roll her sleeves up and help out in this crisis.

She's going to be busy - she needs to go and pick fruit as well :)

Westminster School
Lady Margaret Hall for the other sort of PPE
PriceWaterhouseCoopersAllOneWord

Well that was a predictable Google.