Junior doctors could be planning to strike again, despite Labour Health Secretary Wes Streeting offering a staggering pay deal that could see their earnings rise by 22.3 per cent over two years.
The pay increase was thought to end months of paralysing walkouts, but a leaked video suggests more strikes will be planned.
The video shows a British Medical Association (BMA) employee telling a group of junior doctors of plans to ‘”bank” these initial gains, build and then go again in April 2025’, according to the Express newspaper.
Dame Priti Patel claims Labour is showing it’s ‘true colours’ and fears union’s will extract even more pubic cash from Keir Starmer.
She said the footage shows ‘Labour is, and has always been, a party run by their union baron paymasters.’
The British Medical Association’s (BMA) junior doctors committee has reportedly agreed to put the offer to its members. If accepted, it will end the months of paralysing walkouts over pay
Junior doctors are planning to strike again, despite Labour Health Secretary Wes Streeting (pictured) offering a staggering pay deal that could see their earnings rise by 22.3 per cent over two years
The BMA call for action comes despite admitting some members are getting ‘fatigue’ from carrying out the previous ’11 rounds of strikes’.
The terms offered by Wes Streeting would mean a rise of between 8.1 per cent and 10.3 per cent for the upcoming financial year as well as a backdated 4.05 per cent increase for 2023/24.
That is on top of an existing 6 per cent pay rise for 2024/2025, topped up by a £1,000 payment. This is equivalent to a pay rise of between 7 per cent and 9 per cent.
The overall package represents a pay rise of about 22.3 per cent, MailOnline understands. It is thought this could cost the taxpayer around £1billion.
Junior doctors in their first year currently have a basic pay of £32,400, while those with three years’ experience make £43,900. The most senior earn £63,100.
BMA members are expected to vote on the proposals on Monday, August 19.
Wes Streeting hailed the BMA deal and assured it would ‘finally pave the way to ending industrial action which has caused untold misery to patients and staff’.
Responding to the leaked clip, a junior doctor told the Express: ‘The BMA does not want to accept the deal but they know the membership is losing interest.’
But the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee co-chairs Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said they are recommending members vote ‘yes’ to this offer and they hope they can ‘start building form here’.
Under the proposed pay deal, junior doctors would see a rise of between 8.1 per cent and 10.3 per cent for the upcoming financial year as well as a backdated 4.05 per cent increase for 2023/24
Junior doctors in their first year now have a basic pay of £32,300, while those with three years’ experience make £43,900. The most senior earn £63,100
The offer followed months of failed talks with ministers from a sequence of Conservative Governments.
The BMA has long claimed its demands are for ‘pay restoration’ given that previous NHS salary rises for medics have not kept pace with inflation since 2008.
The latest walkout, just days before the general election, was the 11th strike by junior doctors in 20 months.
Some 1,486,258 appointments have been postponed since NHS industrial action — which has involved staff including doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and paramedics — kicked-off in late 2022.
But not all NHS trusts have supplied figures on cancelled appointments, meaning the true scale of the disruption is expected to be higher.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘The NHS is broken, and the Secretary of State has been clear he wants to work with junior doctors to get it back on its feet and improve working conditions.
‘The deal being put to doctors will increase pay for junior doctors and see the BMA, NHS England and Government work together to improve conditions, including by reviewing the current rotation system.’
