Facts

The NHS's updated pay scales for 2022/23 show that a newly qualified nurse (Payment Band 5) will earn an annual salary of £27,055

It is only when including extra earnings, such as overtime, that a newly qualified nurse might expect to earn over £31,000. Barclay is aware of this. In an opinion piece he wrote for the Sunday Telegraph earlier that month, he stated that, “a newly qualified nurse will now typically earn over £31,000 a year including overtime and unsocial hours payments.”

See also this essential  analysis from Full Fact

Verdict

The health secretary could have tweeted that a newly qualified nurse would earn an annual salary of £27,055, adding that he or she could push up their annual pay to a “typical” £31,000 through overtime and anti-social hours work. Failure to set out this context meant that he risked misleading his Twitter followers.

We emailed Steve Barclay’s office and the Department for Health and Social Care offering them the chance to respond. The email was received, but no reply.

Additional Note: Note the use of the word “typical” by Conservative ministers in order to create a misleading or partial impression. Liz Truss repeatedly used the term “typical” to suggest that her government’s energy cap would protect families from an energy bill of more than £2,500 a year when this was not the case. See here, here and here.