MORE than 11,000 ambulance workers are set to down tools across England and Wales today as “tin-eared Tory ministers refuse to talk pay,” health union GMB has warned.

Paramedics, emergency care assistants, call handlers and other staff will stage more than 100 pickets across eight different trusts as the long-running dispute over wages and understaffing escalates.

Westminster’s dismissal of calls to reopen discussions on 2022-23’s significantly below-inflation 4.75 per cent average salary deal has left workers “furious,” GMB said.