Thousands of ambulance workers strike as unions accuse Steve Barclay of ‘blatant lie’ – live

Ambulance workers and other NHS staff strike for between 12 and 24 hours in England and Wales

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Barclay is doubling down on his refusal to negotiate on pay and told staff struggling now that they should “look forward” to next year’s pay process.

We’re already three quarters of the way through this year. So, what you’d be saying is, go all the way back retrospectively to April to unpick what has been an independent decision by the pay review body.

But we’re already now under way in terms of next year’s pay review process, the remit letters have gone out.

It took place in February and the world was a rather different place in February and therefore I think some of the evidence they considered was probably out of date by the time it was published. Because the process is very slow, the decision is a bit lagged.

I think [ministers] should ask the pay review body to reconsider what they did last year, and not reopen last year, because I think it’s too late to do that, but actually say I want you to do a very quick turnaround for this year’s recommendations and I want you to take account on anything you might have missed last time round.

No, it reflects the very different action we’ve seen from these trade unions – the GMB, Unite and Unison – compared to what we saw from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), where we agreed national exemptions in terms of what would be covered by the RCN, whereas the three unions striking today have refused to work with us on a national level.

Life and limb cover will be provided. The last thing that our members want to do is put patients in harm’s way … The government has to play their part, they have to come to the table and talk to us. Our members want a resolution to this.