Thousands of junior doctors across the UK have walked off the job in a five-day strike that began early Friday, following a breakdown in talks with the Labour government over pay.
Doctors took to the picket lines outside hospitals after last-minute negotiations on Thursday failed to produce a breakthrough.
The dispute comes despite an earlier agreement last September, when junior doctors accepted a pay deal amounting to a 22.3% increase over two years — shortly after Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party assumed office.
But doctors below consultant level say the issue runs deeper than that. They argue that their salaries have steadily declined in real value since 2008, with a reduction of more than 21% when adjusted for inflation.
“We’re not working 21% less hard — so why has our pay dropped by that much?” asked Melissa Ryan and Ross Nieuwoudt, co-chairs of the British Medical Association’s junior doctors committee.
The government, however, has urged the doctors to reconsider. In an op-ed for The Times, Prime Minister Starmer warned that the strike could cause significant harm to patients and further burden an already overstretched National Health Service (NHS). “Everyone loses if this strike goes ahead,” he wrote. “Our NHS and your patients need you. Please don’t follow your union down this path.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting also weighed in, stating in The Telegraph that the government cannot offer more on pay at this time.
Last year, the former Conservative government had firmly rejected the BMA’s push for a 35% pay restoration, which was aimed at addressing over a decade of wage stagnation amid rising inflation.
While Labour has resolved a number of public sector disputes — including pay deals for teachers and train drivers — this latest standoff with junior doctors is proving to be one of the toughest yet.
With appointments and treatments expected to be delayed across the country, the impact of the walkout will be felt well beyond the hospital corridors.
