Resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – led by the British Medical Association (BMA) began a five-day strike on Friday morning, set to last until 7am on Wednesday.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said on Thursday evening that strike action should have been a “last resort”, and “we did not need to be in this position”.
“These strikes were unnecessary. Unnecessary because resident doctors already had a 28.9 per cent pay increase since this government came to office.”
He added: “They’ve had the highest pay award of the entire public sector two years in a row.”
Streeting had held extended talks with the BMA to avert the strikes, putting student loan write-offs and cuts to NHS pensions on the table to get around government red lines on pay.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, BMA council chair Dr Tom Dolphin was questioned on whether his position is “ridiculous”, given the scale of pay rises for resident doctors.
Dolphin said that it is “desperately unfortunate that the talks broke down” and that “nobody wants to be on strike”.
“If any of your listeners were expecting £1,000 from their employer, and you gave them £800, you’d have something to say about that.”
Lives at risk?
Sent out to bat on the morning media round as the strike began, science and technology secretary Peter Kyle told GB News: “We have delivered the fairness that the public expect of us, that patients require of us.”
“What is not fair is the expectation you can negotiate a 28.9% increase over three years and then come straight back for more.”
Kyle then told BBC Breakfast: “The resident doctors are being let down by their leadership.”
Shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew – appointed earlier this week in the Conservative party’s mini-reshuffle – posted on X: “Labour’s capitulation to union demands has fuelled this chaos.”
“The real tragedy is not just the political cowardice that invited this chaos but the disruption of care patients face.”
He added: “It’s a threat to lives.”