Resident doctors lose public support for strikes after bumper pay rises

Telegraph

5 days ago

Resident doctors have lost the public's support to strike after receiving inflation-busting pay rises, a poll has suggested.
The medics, formerly known as junior doctors, are currently voting on staging another six months of walkouts despite receiving an almost 30 per cent pay rise within three years.
The British Medical Association's (BMA) resident doctors' committee is urging members to vote in favour of strike action, claiming they are paid 23 per cent less in real-terms than they were in 2008.
A new poll of 4,100 British adults by YouGov found that 48 per cent of Britons oppose resident doctors going on strike, while just 39 per cent support them taking action.
The pollsters said this 'marks a shift in opinion' of public support with a survey last summer finding 52 per cent of Britons were in support of striking junior doctors.
The doctors have taken to picket lines on 11 separate occasions since beginning industrial action.
Last week it was announced they would receive an inflation-busting 5.4 per cent pay rise for this financial year, double what was initially budgeted for by the Government and more than the 3.6 per cent given to other staff.
This follows a 22 per cent uplift that the BMA's members voted to accept from Labour last year to end its dispute.
But less than a year later they are threatening to go on strike again with a ballot set to close on July 7.
If they choose to go on strike, then walk outs could begin in July and could potentially last until January 2026.
Conservative MPs told The Telegraph how Labour's decision to 'cave in' to unions on winning the general election last year emboldened them.
Edward Argar, the Tory shadow health secretary, said Labour 'were warned that caving in to union demands last year for above-inflation pay rises, with no strings attached, risked fuelling further disruption'.
Steve Barclay, the former Conservative health secretary, said the Government had 'repeatedly caved in to demands in its first year, whether indicating this week to its backbenchers on the two-child benefit payments, to their trade union paymasters without improvements in productivity and to trade partners like the EU on fishing and with the Chagos Island payments.'
The pay rises for NHS staff on the agenda for change banding system – which does not include doctors – is set to cost the Government an extra £1 billion per year alone.
The YouGov poll also highlighted that Labour supporters were most supportive of strike action, with Conservative voters most likely to oppose them.
A leading patients' organisation said it was 'deeply concerned' about the prospect of strike action over the busy winter period in the NHS.
Rachel Power, the chief executive of the Patients' Association, called for both sides to resolve the dispute quickly after the last series of industrial action 'caused so much harm to patients', delaying millions of appointments and costing more than £2 billion.
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, said on Tuesday that he understood 'the anxiety and anger that resident doctors have felt and continue to feel about their part of the profession'.
'That's why, within weeks of coming into office, I was determined to resolve the pay dispute and give resident doctors a substantial pay rise. That's now being followed by another above-inflation average pay award of 5.4 per cent,' he said.
'The result is that resident doctors have seen their pay increase by 28.9 per cent compared to three years ago. The average starting salary of a full-time resident doctor is now around £38,800 - up nearly £9,500 since 2022/23.
'I want to work in partnership with resident doctors to deliver the change that the NHS is crying out for.'