Junior doctors 'could strike again next year' despite 22% pay rise as union leader considers 'long sustained action'
31 July 2024, 07:58
The head of the junior doctors' union is said to have threatened fresh strikes next year, despite his members getting a 22% pay deal this week.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Robert Laurenson, co-chairman of the junior doctors committee of the British Medical Association (BMA), said that the "window of opportunity [for strikes] is about 12 months away" because Labour is in a "honeymoon period".
It comes after the BMA recommended that its members accept the government's offer, which includes a backdated pay rise of 4.05 per cent, in addition to an increase between 8.8 and 10.3 per cent.
Junior doctors will then be given a further pay rise of six per cent for 2024-2025, in addition to an extra £1,000 cash boost (seven to nine per cent overall).
Across the two years, junior doctors will see their wages rise by around 20 per cent - 15 per cent less than the 35 per cent they had asked for.
Read More: Rachel Reeves 'to sell off Government buildings' - as she blames Tory cover-up for £20bn black hole
The government has said that the pay rise for junior doctors is meant to avert further strikes, which have caused over a million operations and appointments to be cancelled and delayed.
But the BMA junior doctors' chief appeared to suggest that "long sustained" strikes could be ahead.
Laurenson said in a WhatsApp message to colleagues: "I would consider striking with a low threshold for 25/26 when Labour’s honeymoon period ends and they make some sort of mistake that leaves them politically vulnerable."
He added in messages, seen by the Times, that "the power dynamic has swung too far towards [the Labour government] for us to successfully achieve anything via strikes right now".
“Now the last two years the strategy was based on a general election and trying to extract a deal from a desperate chaotic government in decline.
"I think the only way to extract a better deal would be to take long sustained action for probably the next 12 months."
Laurenson said that for the past two years the BMA's strategy was "based on a general election and trying to extract a deal from a desperate chaotic government in decline."
He added: "I think the only way to extract a better deal would be to take long sustained action [strikes] for probably the next 12 months."
A BMA spokesperson said in response: “The BMA’s junior doctor committee is recommending the pay deal to members in England and we believe the deal will bring an end to the strike action by junior doctors in England.
"The offer is a start towards restoring the value of junior doctors and this government has shown it can learn from mistakes of the past.”
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has repeatedly said ending the strikes would be key to bringing down the waiting lists. There are currently 7.6 million people on the waiting list.
Meanwhile Chancellor Rachel Reeves told LBC's Nick Ferrari on Tuesday: "We are in a situation where last year alone, the cost of industrial action in our national health service cost our economy £1.7 billion, and it cost 1.4 million cancelled operations and appointments.
"We couldn't continue to go on like this, so it was the right thing to do to accept those independent pay review bodies."
Dr Dave Triska on being 'brought to tears' as an NHS GP
Overall, some public sector workers will get a pay rise that will cost the taxpayer of over £9 billion, following a recommendation by an independent pay review body.
At the same time, Ms Reeves has said this week that she was planning to raise taxes in October’s Budget to plug a £22 billion "black hole" in the country's finances.
Ms Reeves says the previous Conservative government allocated money for programmes that it did not have.
And she told the News Agents podcast that “I think that we will have to increase taxes in the Budget.”
