MINISTERS are launching a legal challenge to stop next weekend’s nurses strike.
Tensions reached boiling point as Health Secretary Steve Barclay asked the courts to stop the walkout.
Hospital bosses asked Mr Barclay to step in after advisers told them the strike falls outside of the Royal College of Nursing’s mandate.
It means the action may be unlawful and leave nurses without legal protection.
The Health Secretary said he made the decision “regretfully” and added: “The government firmly believes in the right to strike, but it is vital that any industrial action is lawful and I have no choice but to take action.
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“This legal action also seeks to protect nurses who could otherwise be asked to take part in unlawful activity that could in turn put their professional registration at risk.”
The Royal College of Nursing has furiously denied the claim its strike is illegal and believes it can extend the six-month mandate by a day.
General secretary Pat Cullen said: “This is nakedly political. Nurses will not be gagged in this way by a bullying government.
“The government is now desperate to silence nurses rather than address this properly.
“We want to be in the negotiating room, not the courtroom.”
NHS Employers, which represents hospital bosses, sparked the row over the legality of next week’s strike.
The walkout is set for 8pm on Sunday April 30 until 8pm on Tuesday May 2 - but the organisation says the RCN’s authority runs out at midnight on Monday.
This is because it will have been six months since the ballot announced in favour of striking in November.
The RCN disagrees and says it can legally extend the strike until midnight on Tuesday.
Steve Barclay stepped in yesterday after Danny Mortimer, chief of NHS Employers, asked the Department of Health to intervene.
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He said: “The advice that we have received makes clear it is highly likely that the strike action for the entire period of 30th April to 2nd May is illegal.”
Mr Mortimer added that he called upon the Government out of “concern that the RCN may be asking its members to take strike action which does not enjoy legal protection”.