Junior doctors vote by 98 per cent to continue strike action for another six months over pay dispute

20 March 2024, 18:18

Junior doctors demonstrate in Trafalgar Square before marching to the Department of Health, April 11, 2023
Junior doctors demonstrate in Trafalgar Square before marching to the Department of Health, April 11, 2023. Picture: Alamy

By Christian Oliver

Junior doctors have voted by 98 per cent to continue strike action, extending their long-running pay dispute by at least six months.

Listen to this article

Loading audio...

Some 33,869 junior doctors voted on the new mandate to at least September 19, the British Medical Association announced. The turnout of the vote was 62 per cent.

Since March last year there have been a total of 10 junior doctor walkouts, with more set to come following the announcement of today's vote.

Junior doctors part of the BMA are asking for a 35 per cent pay rise - which they have called "perfectly reasonable".

The government believes the BMA's demands are unreasonable, however, with the health secretary calling for a "reasonable solution” to end the action.

Victoria Atkins, Health Secretary, at Downing Street, March 19
Victoria Atkins, Health Secretary, at Downing Street, March 19. Picture: Alamy

Read More: MI6 chief and civil service boss end Garrick Club membership after criticism over its exclusion of women

Read More: Leave Kate alone: Downing Street urges public to 'get behind Princess' as she recovers from abdominal surgery

Junior doctors make up around half of the NHS workforce, with around two-thirds members of the BMA.

Announcing the result of the re-ballot junior doctors committee co-chairs Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi thanked their colleagues for voting for the new mandate.

They called on the health secretary to come forward and make a new offer "as soon as possible".

Junior doctors are asking the government to increase their pay so it reflects what they were paid in 2008 in line with real-term inflation - calling their demands "perfectly reasonable".

“It has now been a year since we began strike action”, they said in a statement.

“That is a year of too many strikes. The government believed it could ignore, delay, and offer excuses long enough that we would simply give up.

“We ask the health secretary to come forward as soon as possible with a new offer - and make sure not a single further strike day need be called.”

Junior doctors have had a nine per cent pay rise this financial year.

Addressing the demands after junior doctors rejected a pay offer in February, Victoria Atkins, the health secretary, said: “We already provided them with a pay increase of up to 10.3 per cent and were prepared to go further.

“We urged them to put an offer to their members, but they refused. We are also open to further discussions on improving doctors’ and the wider workforce’s working lives.”

More Latest News

See more More Latest News

x

Damp start to the week as winter washout brings further flood warnings to parts of the UK

Cyclists training in Regent's Park

Regent's Park cyclists plagued by violent 'bikejacking' gangs - as police 'say they won't patrol before 8am'

The bodies of Andrew Searle and his wife Dawn were found at their home earlier this month

British husband 'likely killed ex-pat wife in France during staged home burglary gone wrong,’ prosecutors say

The Home Office has announced a move to widen travel controls on Kremlin-linked elites.

Kremlin linked elites 'stopped from visiting UK' with new sanctions on third anniversary of Russian invasion of Ukraine

Zelenskyy has hailed Ukrainian 'heroism' on the third anniversary of the war

Zelenskyy hails 'absolute heroism' of the Ukrainian people on third anniversary of Russian invasion

Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber

Justin Bieber breaks silence amid fans' fears after series of gaunt and dishevelled photos emerge

Valdo Calocane

Nottingham attack victims' families slam 'farcical' probe into officers' failure to investigate killer's earlier assault

File photo of Cortina d'Ampezzo, Belluno, Italy, Europe

Horror as British skier, 14, dies after losing control and smashing into tree on family holiday in Italy

Friedrich Merz, center, the candidate of the election winner, the conservative Christian Democratic Union party, CDU, addresses supporters at the party headquarters in Berlin

German conservatives call for 'independence from Trump' after winning elections, as far-right AfD comes second

WASPI women demonstrating on Budget Day outside the Houses of Parliament about the lack of compensation n, Westminister, London, UK, October 30 2024.

Waspi women threaten to sue Government over pension compensation package worth £10.5 billion

Torrential rain falls above the taxi rank at Manchester Victoria Station, Manchester, England, UK. 20th February 2025.

'Danger to life' amber weather warning issued as heavy rain and deep floods set to hit UK

Monumental Pharaoh Thutmose II statues in Karnak Temple.

British archaeologist may have found second tomb of mysterious pharaoh just days after major discovery

French forensic police work on the site of a knife attack where a man is suspected of killing one person and seriously wounding two police officers in Mulhouse, eastern France on February 22, 2025.

Four arrested after one killed and several police officers injured in 'terror attack' in France

Long Row, Nottingham.

16-year-old boy arrested after teenager, 17, stabbed in front of shoppers in Nottingham Primark

Pope is 'still in critical condition'

Pope 'still in critical condition' and participated in Holy Mass with carers amid 'complex clinical picture'

Peter Reynolds, 79 and his wife Barbie, 75 have been arrested by the Taliban.

Retired British couple who run education programmes for mothers arrested by Taliban in Afghanistan