The health secretary and the BMA trade accusations over who bears responsibility for the collapse of talks
In his interviews this morning Wes Streeting, the health secretary, accused the BMA of hypocrisy over pay because the organisation is offering its own staff far less than the resident doctors are demanding.
He told BBC Breakfast:
And here’s the real kicker; having rejected this deal because the pay offer apparently wasn’t good enough at 4.9%, the BMA are offering their own staff 2.75% on affordability grounds.
Why does the BMA think they can get away with telling their own staff they only get 2.75% because that’s all they can afford, whilst rejecting a 4.9% offer because that’s all the government can afford.
We think that strikes cost £50m a day. And so that is, an accurate reflection of the cost of these strikes.
What is true is that in order to deliver a full pay restoration back to 2008 levels, using the RPI account of inflation, it would cost in the order of £3bn a year.
Let’s then assume that other NHS staff would understandably demand the same. Then that cost would be more like £30bn a year. That is more than the entire cost of the Ministry of Justice’s entire budget for running the criminal justice system.
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Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/apr/07/doctors-strike-wes-streeting-snp-fuel-prices-nigel-farage-reform-uk-keir-starmer-labour-strait-hormuz-uk-politics-latest-updates
Author : Andrew Sparrow
Publish date : 2026-04-07 08:30:00
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