Resident doctors begin longest strike yet as Streeting accuses BMA of hypocrisy over pay – UK politics live | Politics
Wes Streeting said that junior doctors’ strikes have cost the country £3 billion in the last 3 years, as new strikes begin
Good morning. Junior doctors in hospitals in England began a six-day strike at 7am this morning. Many will continue to work, but enough people will join the strike to have a significant impact on the care hospitals can provide. This is the 15th junior doctor (formerly known as junior doctors) to appear on the scene since they launched a campaign in 2023 to return their pay to the level they were before austerity came into effect following the financial crash.
this morning Wes StreetThe health minister used a new statistic in his PR fight against the BMA; The doctors’ union organized the strikes. Confirmed a highlighted digit Daily Mail’s splash He said junior doctors’ strikes had cost the country £3 billion.
In an interview with the Today programme, when asked if this was an official government official, Streeting replied:
We think strikes cost £50 million a day. And this is an accurate reflection of the cost of these strikes.
But when the BMA told him it would cost around £3bn to give junior doctors the pay rise they were demanding, Streeting refused. He replied:
What is true is that to restore full wages to 2008 levels, using the RPI inflation calculation, it would cost around £3bn a year.
So let’s assume that other NHS staff would understandably demand the same thing. This cost would then be around £30bn a year. That’s more than the entire Department of Justice budget for running the criminal justice system.
Now this gets to the heart of the BMA’s intransigence. Even though the public sector was the biggest winner nationwide in pay rises (the 28.9% they got from us since this government came in) they still went on strike within a few weeks of taking office.
Andrew Gregory And Peter Walker Here’s more of what Streeting had to say about the strike.
I’ll be posting more of Streeting’s on-air interviews shortly this morning.
Here is the agenda of the day.
7am: Junior doctors in England launched a six-day strike. (Some did; many doctors in the past have chosen to work rather than join the BMA strike.)
9.15: SNP leader and Scottish first minister John Swinney is holding a campaign event focusing on fuel prices. Scottish Labor leader Anas Sarwar is holding a campaign event focusing on pothole policy (at 9.30am) and Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay is publishing his manifesto (at 2pm).
11.30: A lobby briefing is being held in Downing Street.
Morning: Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, is campaigning in Newcastle.
12.30: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage holds a press conference in Warwickshire.
Afternoon: Military planners from around 35 countries interested in plans to keep the Strait of Hormuz open after the Iran war ends are meeting to discuss options at the UK Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood, northwest of London.
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If you want to flag something urgently, it’s best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has stopped posting from their official account on
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important events
Streeting accused the BMA of hypocrisy, saying it had given staff pay rises well below those offered by junior doctors
In their interview this morning Wes StreetThe health minister accused the BMA of hypocrisy over pay because the organization was offering its staff far less than junior doctors were demanding.
He told BBC Breakfast:
And here’s the real kicker; BMA, which rejected this agreement because the salary offer of 4.9 percent was not good enough, offers its employees a salary of 2.75 percent due to affordability.
Why do the BMA reject an offer of 4.9% because it is all the government can afford, while thinking they can get away with telling their own staff they only get 2.75% because it is all they can afford?
It seems to me that the BMA are not willing to put their hands in their own pockets to pay their own staff, but they are more than happy to try to deceive your audience and ask them to pay more tax than I think this country can afford.
He made the same point in an interview on Today, explaining what the BMA does and adding: “There’s a word for that.”
In a separate interview on the Today programme, Jack Fletcher, chairman of the junior doctors’ committee, said he was not responsible for the wages the BMA paid its staff and supported him. They have the right to go on strike.
Wes Streeting said that junior doctors’ strikes have cost the country £3 billion in the last 3 years, as new strikes begin
Good morning. Junior doctors in hospitals in England began a six-day strike at 7am this morning. Many will continue to work, but enough people will join the strike to have a significant impact on the care hospitals can provide. This is the 15th junior doctor (formerly known as junior doctors) to appear on the scene since they launched a campaign in 2023 to return their pay to the level they were before austerity came into effect following the financial crash.
this morning Wes StreetThe health minister used a new statistic in his PR fight against the BMA; The doctors’ union organized the strikes. Confirmed a highlighted digit Daily Mail’s splash He said junior doctors’ strikes had cost the country £3 billion.
In an interview with the Today programme, when asked if this was an official government official, Streeting replied:
We think strikes cost £50 million a day. And this is an accurate reflection of the cost of these strikes.
But when the BMA told him it would cost around £3bn to give junior doctors the pay rise they were demanding, Streeting refused. He replied:
What is true is that to restore full wages to 2008 levels, using the RPI inflation calculation, it would cost around £3bn a year.
So let’s assume that other NHS staff would understandably demand the same thing. This cost would then be around £30bn a year. That’s more than the entire Department of Justice budget for running the criminal justice system.
Now this gets to the heart of the BMA’s intransigence. Even though the public sector was the biggest winner nationwide in pay rises (the 28.9% they got from us since this government came in) they still went on strike within a few weeks of taking office.
Andrew Gregory And Peter Walker Here’s more of what Streeting had to say about the strike.
I’ll be posting more of Streeting’s on-air interviews shortly this morning.
Here is the agenda of the day.
7am: Junior doctors in England launched a six-day strike. (Some did; many doctors in the past have chosen to work rather than join the BMA strike.)
9.15: SNP leader and Scottish first minister John Swinney is holding a campaign event focusing on fuel prices. Scottish Labor leader Anas Sarwar is holding a campaign event focusing on pothole policy (at 9.30am) and Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay is publishing his manifesto (at 2pm).
11.30: A lobby briefing is being held in Downing Street.
Morning: Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, is campaigning in Newcastle.
12.30: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage holds a press conference in Warwickshire.
Afternoon: Military planners from around 35 countries interested in plans to keep the Strait of Hormuz open after the Iran war ends are meeting to discuss options at the UK Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood, northwest of London.
If you would like to contact me, please send a message below the line or send a message on social media during comments open hours (between 10:00 – 15:00). I can’t read all messages BTL, but if you type “Andrew” in a message addressed to me, I’m more likely to see it because I’m looking for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something urgently, it’s best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has stopped posting from their official account on
I find it very helpful when readers point out errors, even minor typos. No mistake is too small to be corrected. I also find your questions very interesting. I can’t promise to answer them all, but I will try to answer as much as I can, either on BTL or sometimes on the blog.
