Health Secretary Wes Streeting accuses striking doctors’ leaders of negotiating in bad faith and warns ‘they have seriously underestimated me’
Wes Streeting has accused striking doctor leaders of bringing the wider trade union movement into “disrepute”.
The Health Secretary said the British Medical Association’s resident doctors committee co-chairs “have seriously underestimated me” after they walked out on last ditch talks to avert the five-day strike which started on Friday. It comes as new footage shows co-chairs Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt being heckled as they arrived at Parliament for talks a week earlier to discuss “creative solutions” other than increasing the headline pay offer, such as reducing training expenses. The talks which started last Thursday eventually broke down on Tuesday.
Mr Streeting said union leaders had given the impression they were happy with how negotiations had progressed and he had believed they would pause industrial action for more talks. He told the Mail that the officials “who sat in front of me either couldn’t carry their committee with them, in which case they’re weak, or have no intention of carrying their committee with them, in which case they’re misleading”. He said their behaviour risks bringing the wider trade union movement into “disrepute”.
Resident doctors – those below the level of consultant and previously known as junior doctors – staged 11 strikes, over 44 days, during 2023 and 2024. After Labour came to power in 2024 they voted to accept a pay deal worth 22.3% on average over two years.
Their latest deal for 2025/26 consists of a 4% uplift plus £750 “on a consolidated basis” – working out as an average rise of 5.4%. Doctors say this is only one or two percentage points above inflation and say their salaries are down a fifth in real terms since 2008.
However polling shows previously strong public support for doctors’ strikes has halved from 52% a year ago to just 26%.
The BMA resident doctor committee co-chairs spoke to assembled media before and after the first day of talks with Government last Thursday, when a passery-by shouted “b****cks”. After initial talks had finished, the co-chairs had sounded positive, saying there was a “window of opportunity” to prevent them going on strike after “constructive” discussions.
Co-chair Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said: “We had an open and frank conversation. There was openness on both sides to discuss options to increase the value of being a doctor in this country. I think the fact that there was a genuine engagement, an exploration of these things at a high level, fills us with hope that in the next few days, potentially, we can find a way to avoid strikes.”
The Government had insisted it can not reopen the headline pay deal but was willing to negotiate on working conditions, such as pensions and how quickly doctors can progress through pay bands in their careers.
In words published today, Mr Streeting said: “I’m not going to let the BMA hold this country to ransom. They have seriously underestimated me. They’ve underestimated this Prime Minister. And they’ve underestimated this government.”
Speaking on a picket line on Friday, co-chair Dr Melissa Ryan, aged 45, insisted that their demand was simple – a commitment over a number of years to guarantee pay is restored to 2008 levels, as measured by the Retail Price Index metric.
Dr Ryan said: “We want to be paid fairly and we want an excuse to stay in the NHS and do what we enjoy, which is looking after patients. Doctors should not need to subsidise the NHS with their wages.”
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She argued that doctors have seen the worst pay erosion across the public sector before apologising to patients for the disruption caused by the strike. She said: “It really is disruptive – and I’m sorry for that. I apologise to patients every day because the NHS isn’t giving them the service they deserve.”
“We’re under-doctored and understaffed. And that’s a political choice not to fund this properly. We need a government that will invest in the NHS, not only for me, but also for the patients.”