DOCTORS ARE STRIKING TO 'BRING DOWN' TORIES

'Strikes are part of a campaign aimed at bringing down the Government'

- Martyn Brown

A DOCTORS' union has been accused of trying to bring down the Government by masterminding a wave of strikes that have put a million medical procedures at risk.

The hugely damaging walkouts by junior doctors have cost the NHS around £1billion this year.

Ministers urged the British Medical Association to halt its latest strike the fifth so far amid growing acrimony over the long-standing pay dispute.

But Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairman of the at the doctors' said the committee Government was "hell-bent on using the rigged independent pay review bodies to suppress our pay".

Junior doctors in Scotland called off a planned strike last month after a new pay offer from the SNP-led government of a 12.4 per cent pay increase next year and a 4.5 per cent increase this year.

Asked if he could accept that kind of deal in England, Dr Laurenson said: "No, because the governments are very different.