By Steve Bargeton, political editor

IN AN extraordinary U-turn, First Minister Jack McConnell has awarded Scottish nurses their 2.5% pay rise in full—just seven weeks before the Holyrood elections.

The surprise move—which will cost the Executive £18.7m—is a direct snub to Chancellor Gordon Brown’s plea for public sector wage discipline in the fight against inflation.

The deal affects nurses, midwives, health visitors, pharmacists, optometrists, applied psychologists, psychotherapists and clinical support workers and technicians supporting these groups.

Announcing the UK-wide two-stage pay settlement for health and other public sector workers two weeks ago Mr Brown told the Commons, “The overall awards come within the inflation target at 1.9% demonstrating our total determination to maintain discipline and stability and continue with an 11th year of sustained economic growth.”

At the time Scottish ministers agreed that the 2.5% rise for nurses would be implemented in two phases—1.5% from April and the rest from November.

Health minister Andy Kerr said then, “Today’s announcements of pay awards across the public sector strike a balance between fairness and discipline in the fight against inflation.

“We have aimed to ensure that they are affordable within existing spending limits and consistent with continuing control of public finances.”

But furious nurses accused the Executive of effectively cutting their wages.

Yesterday they had planned to march from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) conference at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh to nearby Holyrood to voice their anger.

But just a few hours before the protest Mr McConnell announced on a radio programme that he had changed his mind and decided to implement the nurses pay deal in full.

Mr Kerr broke the news to surprised nurses.

“The finances of NHS Scotland are on a sound footing,” he said.

“Whilst not stepping outside of the overall UK negotiated pay system, on reflection I am therefore able to announce that we’ll be meeting the recommendations of the pay review bodies in full from April 1.”

The news was greeted with a mixture of delight and caution by nurses and with scepticism by opposition parties.

At the conference the minister was asked if pay deals would be met in full in future years or was yesterday’s announcement a “one-off election bribe.”

“I budgeted, in my view effectively, for what I thought may have been the outcome of the review process,” he said.

“I’m not removing money from any other part of the health system in Scotland to deal with this pay award. I have also looked at the history of agreeing national pay review body recommendations.

“I planned for where we are today. I do not relate it to any other event or set of circumstances.”

But opposition parties were in no doubt that the forthcoming election had everything to do with yesterday’s announcement.

“The SNP welcome this U-turn as it is the right decision,” said SNP health spokesman Shona Robison.

“What this announcement does show is that the Labour Party in Scotland are now making policy announcements on the hoof.

“Less than two weeks ago the health minister stated that such a deal was impossible, yet today he has suddenly caved in under increasing pressure.

“For years the Labour-led government has argued that you can’t have a separate pay deal for Scotland, but now when faced with fierce opposition they simply cave in.”

Scottish Tory health spokesman Dr Nanette Milne said it was certainly very, very different from the stance Mr Kerr took less than a fortnight ago.

“Naturally, health workers won’t be interested in the wider politics of the situation—and why should they—but we have to wonder whether this climbdown would have happened if there wasn’t an election looming,” she said.

Solidarity MSP Rosemary Byrne said, “Labour have no shame. They announce this rise to a meeting instead of in the Scottish Parliament, they don’t even tell their Liberal colleagues and did they tell Gordon Brown?