Streeting: Strike action only plays into hands of Farage

Wes Streeting has hit out at the doctors’ union after it announced a fresh round of strikes, warning it is a “slap in the face” for NHS staff and will play directly into the hands of Nigel Farage.

- REBECCA WHITTAKER REBECCA THOMAS CAITLIN DOHERTY

The health secretary accused the British Medical Association (BMA) of trying to “wreck” the NHS recovery with a “rush to industrial action” after it announced resident doctors in England would strike on five consecutive days next month in an ongoing row over jobs and pay.

The association claims doctors are left unemployed and struggling to find jobs, while shifts in hospitals go unfilled and patients stay on waiting lists.

But Mr Streeting, writing exclusively in The Independent today, said the strike “flies in the face of the wishes of their patients who have consistently opposed these disruptive walkouts”.

Resident doctors have been in a pay dispute since March 2023, and next month’s industrial action will be the 13th strike since it began. They were awarded a 28.9 per cent pay rise over the last three years, but the BMA says wages are still around 20 per cent lower in real terms than in 2008.

The BMA argues the value of resident doctors’ pay has been eroded by inflation since 2008-09 and has published hourly pay figures showing what the pay “restoration” it is asking for would look like.

However, Mr Streeting described the move as “preposterous” and accused the BMA of “blocking a better deal for doctors” while most “want to get on with their jobs”.