Health Secretary Wes Streeting reignites claim-and-counter-claim after ‘positive’ pay talks with the British Medical Association collapsed at the last minute
Wes Streeting has given striking doctors a week to U-turn and accept his pay deal before it is withdrawn.
The Health Secretary spoke in the House of Commons after the British Medical Association announced a six-day NHS strike planned in England for after the Easter weekend which would see thousands of operations cancelled.
Mr Streeting also accused the BMA’s resident doctors committee of unilaterally rejecting the deal instead of putting it to members. The headline pay offer was 3.5% for 2026/27 but he said the overall package of measures would have led to resident doctors getting an average pay rise of 4.9%.
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Mr Streeting told MPs: “As we ask the BMA to reconsider, they have until next Thursday to do so before we have to call time on the extra jobs and the focus of the NHS, and my department turns to minimising the disruption from this unnecessary and unwarranted strike action, which would also consume the money set aside for this deal.”
Resident doctors in England, formerly known as junior doctors, will down their stethoscopes at 7am on April 7, immediately after the long Easter weekend. BMA negotiators had been in talks with Mr Streeting’s team about a package of measures including reimbursement for exam costs and an additional 1,000 medical training places.
After some initial conciliatory language on both sides, Mr Streeting on Thursday accused the BMA’s powerful Resident Doctors Committee of unilaterally rejecting the deal instead of putting it to a vote by doctor members.
Mr Streeting said: “I do not want resident doctors in three years’ time to look back on this moment with regret as they turn down three years of guaranteed pay rises, more money in their pockets through reimbursement of exam fees and more jobs.”
The dispute centres on claims by the BMA committee that the Government made “last minute changes” to the deal so that some aspects of the pay increase was phased in over three years.
Dr Jack Fletcher, chairman of the BMA’s Resident Doctors Committee, said: “Mr Streeting is correct to say that recent talks have been much more positive and constructive in tone. That’s why it is so disappointing he should now immediately move to misleading language like this.
He added: “We repeatedly warned that by diluting the original investment over three years and coming in with a sub-par award the Government was heading towards a rejection by the full committee, which indeed happened. In making these last-minute changes, Government has risked snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. There is still hope though, and we can get round the table right now if these last-minute changes are reversed.”
Speaking at a board meeting of NHS England earlier on Thursday, its chief executive Sir Jim Mackey said: “A fantastic amount of effort and work has been gone in on all sides to try and reach agreement. We felt very, very, very close that we had a deal that could work for all parties. It’s incredibly disappointing that it fell to bits at the last minute.
“It’s actually not true that our position changed during the negotiation. But we are where we are, so we are going to have to get ourselves organised about navigating what’s probably a long period now of dispute.”
NHS England finance director Glen Burley said: “We put forward what I feel is a really good offer to resident doctors… a huge amount of work from I and other colleagues in the negotiating team, and actually from the negotiating team of the BMA.
“We pulled together a really good joint proposal that covered jobs pay, wider contract reforms. Every single issue that was put to us, we addressed. So when the BMA negotiating team put it to their committee, I was really shocked that the committee decided not to even put it to their members.”
The BMA has demanded a commitment to increase resident doctors’ pay by 26% over the next few years. The union points to pay erosion since 2008 saying real terms salaries are down a fifth since then, according to the retail price index (RPI) measure of inflation.
The Government’s preferred measure of inflation is the consumer price index (CPI) – which excludes mortgage and permanent housing costs – shows average resident doctor salaries down 5% since 2008.
The Government says its 2026/27 offer and associated concessions means resident doctors earnings will have increased by £35,000 in four years. It was said to include the reimbursement of mandatory exam fees and a rise in the number of speciality training posts.
The Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) advises the Government on rates of pay for doctors and dentists. Ministers then decide whether to accept the recommendation.
The five-day walkout that resident doctors staged just before Christmas was their 14th strike since March 2023. Each of the three five-day stoppages they have held since Labour took power in July 2024 has cost the NHS an estimated £250 million.
