'Get in the real world!' Ex-Labour adviser slams doctor strikes as 'deeply offensive'

The five-day strike is to protest jobs and pay.

"I don't think there's any public sympathy for them," the former adviser and journalist said, discussing the matter with the former editor of The Sun Kelvin McKenzie on GB News.

"I don't think there's any public sympathy for them," the former adviser and journalist said on GB News.

"Many people criticise the fact that as soon as Labour was elected, the first thing they did was to give them a walloping great pay rise.

"The idea that you want to have your pay restored to what it would have been in 2008 is a little bit like saying, actually, 'I'd like to buy a house at the same price as it would have been in 2008'. You know, get in the real world."

The fresh round of strikes by the British Medical Association was triggered by a breakdown in talks between the Union and the Government.

Ms Phillips fumed: "The idea that you could even go on strike and ask for a 28 per cent pay rise is absolutely disgusting."

"It's deeply, deeply offensive to most people, including their patients and the nurses that work alongside them, and the paramedics and the people who clean the hospitals and the radiographers and all the other people who work in the health service.

"It's absolutely outrageous," she raged.

The strike will be the 13th walkout in the long-running saga over pay that has taken place since March 2023.

More senior doctors will be called in to hospitals to help cover those who have opted into the strike and will be leaving their patients behind.

Since the announcement, Health Secretary said it was "preposterous" that the doctors have decided to strike again.

"The BMA are walking away from an offer to improve resident doctors' working conditions and create more specialty training roles to progress their careers. The BMA are blocking a better deal for doctors," the top Labour minister fumed.

He added: "These unreasonable and unnecessary strikes do not have the public's support.

"The BMA's reckless posturing will harm patients, leave other doctors and NHS staff to pick up the pieces and divert resources away from rebuilding the NHS."

Meanwhile, Chair of the BMA's resident doctors committee Dr Jack Fletcher said: "This is not where we wanted to be.

"We talked with the government in good faith. We hoped the Government would see that our asks are not just reasonable, but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help stop our doctors leaving the NHS.

"While we want to get a deal done, the Government seemingly, does not, leaving us with little option but to call for strike action."

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