Furious Yorkshire A&E nurse gets standing ovation after telling Leeds Tories to ‘hang your heads in shame’

Sandy Lay, a Leeds Liberal Democrat councillor who works for the Harrogate and District Foundation Trust, claimed the Government had “demonised and criminalised” NHS staff who have walked out in a dispute over pay and conditions.

Delivering a speech during a full meeting of Leeds City Council, a visibly angry Coun Lay said he had stood with 100 colleagues from the Royal College Nursing on a picket line outside Harrogate District Hospital that morning. He savaged potential new laws guaranteeing minimum public service levels on strike days, which he claimed did nothing to help keep patients safe the rest of the time.

Addressing Tory councillors at Civic Hall, Coun Lay said: “I will not have the Government, and by association you lot, telling the public that we are harming the patients on strike days. We are not. You are harming them on every other day. We want minimum service levels and minimum staff levels – but it has to be every day, not just on strike days.”

Coun Lay, who represents the Otley and Yeadon ward, claimed the Government had “criminalised, demonised and demoralised” NHS workers. He added: “A kind, gentle and hard-working profession has, after 106 years of never striking, decided enough is enough.”

To a standing ovation from Labour and Green councillors as well as members of his own party, he told Conservative members: “You should hang your heads in shame.”

The comments were made during a council debate about the state of public services across the country. The Government says minimum service levels on strike days will help protect the public from disruption and save lives. Critics claim the legislation is draconian and could see workers sacked for refusing to work on a strike day.

Later in the debate, Leeds’ Conservative deputy group leader, Coun Alan Lamb, paid tribute to NHS staff who had cared for him during a recent stay in hospital. Coun Lamb said: “I’ve seen the dedication of the nurses, healthcare professionals doctors and the magnificent job that they do and I will be eternally grateful to them, Councillor Lay.

“What I also saw was a service that in some places doesn’t work so well, but in some places was magnificent. I can put my hand on my heart and say with the condition I had, there’s no place I’d rather have been in the world than St James’ Hospital in Leeds.”