Exclusive from @oliver_wright Andy Burnham has rejected a plea from the health secretary for more money for NHS pay in a sign of tension between cabinet ministers before the budget Yvette Cooper requested hundreds of millions of pounds in extra funding from the Treasury for a pay deal for nurses and to free up resources for frontline care, amid warnings that the government will miss its signature waiting times target But in a highly unusual move, Burnham and John Healey, the chancellor, have jointly written to Cooper to reject the plea, telling her that the pay rise will have to be funded within the NHS’s existing budget One Whitehall source said that this meant that existing health budget allocations would now have to be reopened, piling pressure on hospitals as winter approaches However, another said that the NHS had to “live within its means” and accused the department of failing to make the efficiency savings it had promised when it received a record £29bn funding boost in the last spending review thetimes.com/article/9dabd19…