The Chancellor has refused to rule out banning nurses from going on strike.
Jeremy Hunt would not say if he disapproved of his colleague Gillian Keegan’s idea to ban health workers from striking.
There is already a ban on police and military taking industrial action, which the Education Secretary suggested could be extended to NHS staff.
Presenter Andrew Marr pressed him twice on the issue in an interview on LBC radio last night.
Mr Hunt responded by saying that "people in the services that we depend on for our life should commit to minimum services levels".
"In the end it’s just too dangerous for the public if we can’t be confident [in them]."
When asked if he thought the nurses' reasoning for striking was "just", Mr Hunt again said: "I think it is fair to ask public service workers to guarantee minimum levels of service and we will make our proposals in due course.
"But I think the way to avoid the strikes that we have now is to say well let’s go through an independent process. And that’s what I hope will happen.”
Up to 100,000 nurses from the Royal College of Nursing will strike tomorrow and on December 20.
It is the first time the union has held strikes like this in its 106-year history.
The RCN is calling for a pay rise of five per cent above inflation.
In summer the Government announced that NHS staff in England would get a rise of £1,400 for all pay bands but unions argued it was effectively a pay cut due to inflation.
RCN’s chief Pat Cullen accused health secretary Steve Barclay of being “disrespectful and disingenuous” after she revealed he refused to even discuss pay at crunch talks on Monday.
Speaking at a Mirror summit of trade union leaders, she said: “It’s the first time in 106 years we are having a strike because this government has turned its back on nurses. And when you turn your back on nurses you turn your back on patients.”
The union had previously said it would postpone tomorrow’s strike if genuine talks on wages were started.
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has branded his opposite number’s approach to the NHS pay dispute as a “complete joke”.
Mr Streeting accused the Government of a “betrayal of patients” over its “appalling” stance on strikes.
