Wes Streeting has fumed at resident doctors as strikes loom while speaking with GB News, raging that Labour has “bent over backwards” to meet the British Medical Association’s demands.
The Health Secretary said it was “for the BMA to justify their actions” after medics began a walkout this morning.
Resident doctors are demanding a so-called pay restoration to accommodate inflation after the BMS rejected a 4.9 per cent pay increase between 2026 and 2027 offered by the Government.
“I think it's for the BMA to justify their actions, bearing in mind that since this Government came in, resident doctors have been the standout winners across the entire public sector,” Mr Streeting told The People’s Channel.
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“It is quite clear that this government has been over backwards to try and deal with resident doctors and their union.
“Ultimately, you get to a point where it's never enough for the BMA,” he said.
“They had a 28.9 per cent pay rise awarded by this government, and they still went on strike.
Mr Streeting continued: “An emergency law was passed through Parliament and enacted to reduce competition for training places for resident doctors by prioritising UK graduates for medical school places against international competitors, and they still went on strike.
Wes Streeting fumed at resident doctors' strikes while speaking with GB News
|GB NEWS
“There is a deal that was put to resident doctors that would have given them a 4.9 per cent average pay rise, as high as 7.1 per cent for some of their members, and they still went on strike.
“That deal included 4500 training places, a thousand that would have started this month. They turned that down. They still went on strike. The deal would also have included the cancellation of exam fees, which leave resident doctors out of pocket by thousands of pounds in some cases, yet they've still gone on strike.”
After sharing the exhaustive list of examples, Mr Streeting then launched into a direct attack on the BMA’s own payment structure.
“What I find astonishing about their rejection of this deal and all of the benefits for their members that it contains is that the BMA is an employer itself with its own staff.
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| PA“They have offered a 2.75 per cent pay rise on affordability grounds, and their own staff have been out on strike.
“So it seems to me the BMA's position boils down to this. They're not prepared to pay their own staff more than 2.75 per cent because they say they can't afford it, but they're very happy to ask the taxpayer to cough up even more.
“Whether the taxpayer can afford it or not. And I think that is the height of hypocrisy from the BMA.”
Comparing the Labour Government’s record with the BMA to the previous Conservative administration, the Health Secretary told GB News: “We got them round the table straight away.”
“We've negotiated with them in good faith. We expected, not unreasonably, that after a 28.9 per cent pay rise and the promise of further progress in the years to follow, the BMA would be a reasonable negotiating partner.
“There is only so much that we can do as the government, because it takes two to tango.
“The BMA seemed to think that they could reject a deal, go on strike, and still get the benefits of the deal.
“And I'm sorry, but that is just not going to happen,” Mr Steeting pledged.