Doctors' leader: 29% claim is not negotiable

Resident doctors' 29% pay claim is non-negotiable, "reasonable" and easily affordable for the NHS, the new leader of the medical profession has said.

- Denis Campbell

Strikes to ensure resident - formerly junior - doctors in England get the full 29% could drag on for years, according to Dr Tom Dolphin, the British Medical Association's new council chair.

The doctors' union will not negotiate on or accept a lower figure because that is the extent of the real-terms loss of earnings resident doctors have suffered since 2008, which they want restored - and in full - Dolphin told the Guardian in his first interview since taking over last month.

The 29% demand is not up for negotiation "because it's based on a principle", Dolphin, a consultant anaesthetist, said. "If we picked a different number, that wouldn't achieve the pay restoration. So that's why it looks inflexible."

Dolphin blamed the five-day strike that tens of thousands of resident doctors plan to stage this month on Wes Streeting, the health secretary, giving them a 22% pay rise over two years last year but not following it up with an award this year to take account of the 29% claim. The disruption the 120-hour walkout will cause is his fault, not theirs, he added.

Dolphin said: "Our expectation was that that [22%] would be the start of a journey that would keep us going until we'd reached the value we had in 2008. So, clearly, the return of value has stopped and now it's just marching on the spot. And we need to carry on that journey.