Resident doctors will strike for four days in June as part of their long-running dispute with the Government over pay, the British Medical Association has confirmed.
The BMA rejected the Government’s latest pay offer and will strike from 15-19 June.
The union announced the strike dates – and said there could be more to come in July – saying the new Health Secretary James Murray had not improved the Government’s offer.
The announcement comes after the recently appointed Health Secretary James Murray met with representatives of the doctors’ union for the first time in the hopes of putting an end to the long-running dispute with resident doctors in England.
Mr Murray previously said he wanted to “give unions confidence” he will do all he can to improve career prospects and ensure NHS staff are paid fairly.
Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the resident doctors committee, said: “We had hoped that a change in leadership at the Department of Health and Social Care would lead to a change in approach. Sadly, we have run up against the same unwillingness to move we encountered under Mr Streeting.
“We were prepared to give Mr Murray time to settle into his role before completing the work his predecessor left unfinished – to both make a fair and meaningful pay offer and make concrete commitments to end the jobs bottleneck throttling the careers of our colleagues. He had a genuine opportunity to break this logjam with fresh energy and ambition.
“He has not taken it. Instead, we are hearing the same tired line: vagueness on new jobs and no further money on the table. We cannot be asked to negotiate in good faith for weeks, only to be told there is nothing left to negotiate about on pay and no further details at this stage on jobs.
“Thousands of doctors continue to leave the NHS, and take-home pay remains a fifth lower in real terms than it was in 2008. If Mr Murray wishes to make a success of his new role, he must confront this issue before any other.
“We are prepared to accept that he may have inherited plans already in motion when he took office. If so, he now has a new opportunity to demonstrate genuine leadership and prevent further strike action. Our ask is straightforward: a credible, meaningful offer comprising concrete new jobs and real progress towards pay restoration.
“Mr Murray arrives in this role directly from the Treasury, where his job was to weigh the costs and benefits of public spending. We would expect him, of all people, to understand that the costs of prolonged, avoidable strike action would far outweigh a deal that secured the future of the NHS workforce. The calculation is not a difficult one.”
Prior to the April strike, Mr Streeting had offered a 4.9 per cent increase in average basic pay from 2026 to 2027, which he claimed would have left resident doctors 35.2% better off than four years ago.
His proposal had also included an offer of 1,000 extra training places, although that was taken off the table due to increasing strike costs to the NHS.
In response to the announcement, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care James Murray said: “I met the BMA resident doctors committee officers today in the hope of starting a productive relationship and making progress on a deal to improve their members’ pay, career prospects and working lives.
“I’m disappointed that the BMA have refused to consider further discussions about how to strengthen the deal on the table and have instead rushed once again to unnecessary and unreasonable strike action.
“I was clear with the BMA that after a 33.4% pay rise for resident doctors over the last four years – the highest anywhere across the public sector – the BMA’s demands for further substantial pay increases this year are unrealistic, unaffordable, and unsustainable.
“These are simply not grounds for yet more strike action, which patients do not support, puts further pressure on other staff, and costs the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds.
“There are record numbers of doctors working in our NHS this year. Waiting lists are down and patient satisfaction is up. I urge the BMA to step back from more damaging strikes and work in partnership with the Government for the benefit of their members and the NHS.”
