A top Tory has told nurses there is no point going on strike over pay - and claimed most use foodbanks due to a broken "relationship or boiler".
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan made the "staggeringly out of touch" comments as the members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) prepare for an unprecedented national strike.
The ballot of 300,000 members is expected to be formally announced this afternoon, with walkouts expected all over the country.
Nurses are furious over the Government's £1,400 pay rise, which represents a significant real terms pay cut after inflation.
The measly pay hike amounts to around 4% on average while in Scotland nurses were given a 5% rise before inflation. Both offers have been rejected by unions.
Nursing leaders accused Ms Keegan of making "unfounded points" - and said nurses were using foodbanks because their wages had been slashed.
Ms Keegan, a former Health Minister, said "nobody wants nurses to go on strike" as the country grapples with massive Covid backlogs for care.
"I don't think there's any point in going on strike anywhere," she told Sky News.
"I would urge the nurses to continue those discussions, but the reality is if we gave massive above-inflation rises, not only would we have to raise a lot more money, but it would actually fuel inflation.
"This is the problem. We really have to tackle inflation."
Ms Keegan said "of course" she clapped for carers during the pandemic but suggested that foodbank use was not to do with low pay.
Asked if she was comfortable with nurses using foodbanks to survive, she said: "Quite often when you go to food banks, something will have happened, you know, something will have broken down - either a relationship or boiler or anything.
"Usually they're in an emergency situation.
"I know there was a lot of focus on increasing the starting salary for nurses, there was a lot of focus on making sure that lower paid people in the nursing profession were also [seeing their salary] increased.
"But you know there's no doubt that people are worried about inflation."
A survey of hospital bosses by NHS Providers in September revealed that 27% had set up food banks to support staff.
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: "The Conservatives are staggeringly out of touch, and seem to think it is acceptable for nurses to live on the breadline.
"Ministers should try speaking to nurses to better understand the pressures they are under and to negotiate to avoid strike action."
A RCN spokesperson said: "Nurses are using foodbanks because the government have cut their wages by 20% since 2010. Working effectively a day for free a week does not put food on the table.
"The Minister shouldn't be making unfounded points and may benefit from actually speaking to our members about why they have chosen to vote for strike action."
Liberal Democrat Health spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: “Nurses are struggling through 12-hour shifts on their feet, caring for dozens of patients each, while going hungry and struggling to feed their families, yet Conservative ministers are still finding ways to place the blame on everyone else except themselves.
"Keegan’s comments are a crass display of either shocking ignorance or indifference to the thousands of nurses who care for others day in, day out.
"Nurses are the backbone of our healthcare system: the fact that so many rely on food banks is a devastating demonstration of how the Conservatives have treated nurses for too long, and further evidence of how the Conservatives continue to run our entire health service into the ground.”
In a round of broadcast interviews, Ms Keegan also suggested that tackling s oaring inflation is more important than protecting school budgets.
Headteachers' union NAHT warned this week that the majority of schools face having to make redundancies or slash staff hours to stay afloat.
Asked how to "stop a bad situation getting worse", she said: "I will always be a champion for all parts of our education sector and schools are a massive part of that."
But she added: "We've said very clearly the number one thing we have to do in the Autumn Statement is to tackle inflation, because without doing that you cannot spend your way out of inflation.
"So, without doing that, any other discussion is kind of irrelevant, because inflation will just eat up any gains."
