Streeting aims to avoid 'single day' of NHS strikes

ES Streeting has said he does not want to see resident doctors strike for “a single day” next year, as they returned to work after a five-day walkout.

- STORM NEWTON

The Health Secretary said the strike, along with a rise in flu cases, had created the biggest threat to the NHS since he had come into office last year.

It comes as the British Medical Association (BMA) said the union is “keen to engage” with the Government, and will enter the new year with a “renewed can-do spirit”.

However, the union said 2026 “must see less name-calling and more deal-making”

Resident doctors in England voted to take industrial action in the run-up to Christmas as part of the BMA's dispute with the Government over jobs and pay. They returned to work at 7am on Monday. Mr Streeting said the union’s demand of an extra 26% pay rise was unaffordable on top of a large pay rise after Labour came into office in 2024.

He said: “The double whammy of strike action and flu this December posed the most serious threat to the NHS since I became Health and Social Care Secretary.