Doctors' leader boasts of 'left-wing' views while demanding 29% pay hike as NHS faces cancelling thousands of ops due to FIVE DAYS of strikes
Dr Emma Runswick, deputy chairwoman of the British Medical Association, said that resident doctors were not seeking to 'bring the NHS to its knees' with their latest walk-out in search of an eye-watering 29 per cent pay rise.
But she admitted that only emergency and maternity care would continue if they go ahead with five consecutive days of strikes starting at 7am on July 25.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting will meet BMA representatives this week for talks in an effort to avoid industrial action - having told doctors they cannot have more money.
Ministers and distinguished medics have criticsed the decision, coming at a time when billions is being ploughed into the NHS in a bid to clear backlogs and improve patient care.
IVF pioneer, Professor Robert Winston, resigned from the BMA last week, saying the strike could cause 'long-term damage' to people's faith in doctors.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Dr Runswick was asked is she was a 'militant leftie'.
'Oh yeah I am leftwing but that doesn't necessarily reflect the variety of views that that doctors have,' she said.
She also complained that some specialist residents were only being paid £34 per hour, adding: 'You would pay a plumber more.'
Mr Streeting is reportedly sympathetic to improving working conditions for doctors, but will not budge on salaries.
Reacting to the BMA announcement last Wednesday, Mr Streeting called the move 'completely unreasonable' and urged the union to 'abandon their rush to strike', while health chiefs warned strikes are 'unfair to patients'.
Mr Streeting told the Commons on Thursday: 'We have put the NHS on the road to recovery, but we all know that the NHS is still hanging by a thread, and that the BMA is threatening to pull it.'
Lord Winston quit his membership following the strike announcement, writing in The Times: 'I've paid my membership for a long time. I feel very strongly that this isn't the time to be striking.
'I think that the country is really struggling in all sorts of ways, people are struggling in all sorts of ways.
'Strike action completely ignores the vulnerability of people in front of you.'
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said: 'The BMA have accepted the Health Secretary's offer to meet and we expect that to happen this week.'
Some 90 per cent of voting resident doctors backed the strike action, with the BMA reporting a turnout of 55 per cent.
The union has said that resident doctors need a pay uplift of 29.2 per cent to reverse 'pay erosion' since 2008-09.
In September, BMA members voted to accept a government pay deal worth 22.3 per cent on average over two years.
The 2025-26 pay deal saw resident doctors given a 4 per cent uplift plus £750 'on a consolidated basis' – working out as an average pay rise of 5.4 per cent.
The BMA call for a 29.2 per cent uplift is based on Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation, the measure of average changes in the price of goods and services used by most households.
Mr Streeting has said that the 'majority' of BMA resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – did not vote to strike and has called the forthcoming action 'completely unreasonable'.
However Labour has also been accused of crying 'crocodile tears' - as it prepares to make walkouts even easier.
Angela Rayner 's radical workers' rights Bill will soon scrap the 50 per cent turnout threshold which unions must meet to hold legal strike action.
Last night Conservative business spokesman Andrew Griffith told the Mail the Government's comments were 'totally hypocritical'.
He said: 'The unions are already licking their lips at the Employment Bill, which will unleash waves of low threshold strikes. By reducing the turnout required to trigger a strike, Labour are guaranteeing even more strikes. They are effectively giving unions the whip hand at the worst possible time.
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