GOVERNMENT WARNS STRIKE IS ‘RECKLESS’
After forming a government last year, Labour had quickly brokered a 22 per cent pay deal with doctors. But amid growing strain on public finances, the government has refused to go beyond a 5.4 per cent increase this year.
Health Minister Wes Streeting criticised the BMA’s decision to proceed with the strike.
“All I asked of them (BMA leadership) was the postponement of strikes for a few weeks so we could work together on a detailed package that could form an offer to you to end this dispute,” Streeting wrote in a letter to doctors, which was posted on X on Thursday.
PUBLIC SUPPORT WANING AS DOCTORS DIVIDED
Public support for the strikes has dipped, according to a YouGov poll conducted on Monday. Among 4,954 adults surveyed, 52 per cent now oppose the action, while only 34 per cent remain in favour. In May, 48 per cent had opposed the strikes and 39 per cent supported them.
Even among doctors, opinions on the strike are divided.
“I would like for a settlement to be achieved very soon and in the absence of strike action which doesn’t help anybody and which nobody wants,” said 33-year-old resident doctor and BMA member Adam Boggon, who told Reuters he had voted against the strike.
The walkout threatens to deepen the NHS’s ongoing struggles with staffing shortages and long wait times as the government faces pressure to balance worker demands with fiscal constraints.
