Junior doctors to strike ahead of UK election

Junior doctors in England will go on strike for five days in the run-up to the UK general election, after failing to reach an agreement with the Conservative government to secure a better pay offer.

The British Medical Association, the main doctors’ union, said on Wednesday that junior doctors would walk out from June 27 to July 2, in the latest industrial action as part of the medics’ battle for a 35 per cent pay rise.

A fresh round of talks began this month, before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a general election for July 4, in an attempt to end a dispute that has seen doctors strike 10 times so far in the past two years.

“When we entered mediation with government this month we did so under the impression that we had a functioning government that would soon be making an offer,” said Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi, co-chairs of the BMA junior doctors’ committee.

Junior doctors had “made clear to the government that we would strike unless discussions ended in a credible pay offer”, they added. “Clearly no offer is now forthcoming. Junior doctors are fed up and out of patience.” 

The walkout will have an impact on almost all routine care, as consultants are asked to step in for their junior doctor colleagues who make up about half of the medical workforce.

Speaking to the media during a campaign visit to Devon, Sunak noted the strike was called on a day that Labour was setting out its healthcare policies.

“Today’s action by the junior doctors, on the same day as the Labour party are having a health day, does slightly ponder the question as to whether this is politically motivated,” he said.

The strike will increase pressure on Labour, if it wins the election, to settle the row with doctors and avert future walkouts. Public sector pay disputes were flagged as one of the most immediate problems in a dossier drawn up by Sue Gray, Labour’s chief of staff, for if the party takes power.

After five weeks of talks late last year, the medical union rejected the government’s offer of a 3 per cent pay increase, on top of a roughly 9 per cent rise already offered. It said the proposal was not “credible” and did not address 15 years of inflation-linked pay erosion.

Sir Keir Starmer, Labour leader, said it was “unforgivable” that ministers had failed to come to a deal before the election.

“I think the government should have resolved it and negotiated a settlement,” he said on Wednesday. “And what they’ve effectively done is kicked it to the other side of the general election.”

Wes Streeting, Labour’s shadow health secretary, has warned junior doctors that the party would not be able to meet demands for a 35 per cent pay rise straight after the election, though he told the BBC on Wednesday he was “willing to sit down and negotiate”.

Streeting said he would also seek to address junior doctors’ complaints about rotations and placements if Labour was elected, and accused the Tory government of treating medics with “disrespect and lack of care”.

He insisted on Wednesday that Labour had a “serious plan” to clear the NHS waiting-list backlog, which saw more than 3.2mn people in England waiting for treatment for longer than the 18-week NHS target at the end of March.

Labour’s plan would enable the NHS to deliver an additional 40,000 appointments per week, Streeting claimed, by expanding out-of-hours staffing, purchasing more advanced diagnostic scanners and using capacity from the private sector.

The state of the health service is one of the most important issues for voters, with 45 per cent of people listing it as one of their top three concerns, just behind the economy on 51 per cent, according to a recent YouGov poll.

The Department of Health said: “Patient safety will be the priority during industrial action and the NHS will prepare for these strikes in the usual way.

“It will work closely with unions to discuss any patient safety concerns and ensure safe staffing for emergency care continues to be available.”