A Tory Health Minister has been accused of "fiddling the figures" over the cost of a pay rise for struggling NHS nurses.
Maria Caulfield claimed on Thursday that just a 1% pay increase would cost the Government around £700million.
Moments later on the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme, the Tory minister, who is also a nurse, suggested the figure stood at £800million.
The Government later confirmed the £700m figure - but that this applied to all non-medical NHS workers, not just nurses.
Her remarks came as desperate nurses held the biggest walkout in the Royal College of Nursing's 106-year history.
Defending the Government's stance and refusal to negotiate on pay with unions, Ms Caulfield said that ministers faced a "difficult choice".
"For every per cent we would have to put pay up - that's £700million we have to find," the minister said.
In the same interview she claimed: "We have to be honest with the British people that for every one per cent we put pay up we have to find £800million and that is a difficult ask at the moment".
The Department for Health admitted Ms Caulfield had misspoke in reference to the £800m figure - but claimed the £700m was accurate.
They argued a rise for nurses would mean a hike for all Agenda for Change staff - non-medical NHS workers - including midwives, porters and cleaners.
The Department's website says the system aligns pay scales, "meaning pay rises apply to everyone under this contract".
But Labour's Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: "Instead of fiddling the figures, the Government should be preventing further strike action by negotiating with nurses.
"Had they taken up the nurses' offer to suspend strike action to hold talks, the Government would have stopped today's strikes going ahead.
"These are Rishi Sunak and Steve Barclay's strikes".
Ms Caulfield also cited the disastrous Liz Truss mini-budget as evidence for why borrowing cannot be used for spending to pay for a bigger pay rise for nurses.
She told Sky News: "We could've ignored the pay review bodies recommendation and gone for a much lower pay rise - we could go higher, but we have got to find that money from somewhere. This isn't Government money, it's taxpayers' money."
She said the three options for finding that money are reducing spending elsewhere, increasing taxation, or increasing borrowing.
"We know the impact of borrowing when governments can't afford it, we saw that just a few weeks ago", Ms Caulfield said.
