Wes Streeting says junior doctors' strike action is ‘unconscionable'
Wes Streeting, speaking at the health and care select committee, said that he 'cannot fathom' why 'any doctor in good conscience would make it harder for managers to make sure we have safe staffing levels'.
The comments come after resident doctors, as junior doctors are now known, who are members of the British Medical Association (BMA) voted to strike for five days from July 25. They have demanded a 29 per cent pay rise, which they have said would bring them back to 2008 pay levels.
He said: 'We can mitigate against the impact of strikes, and we will, but what we cannot do is promise that there will be no consequence and no delay, no further suffering, because there are lots of people whose procedures are scheduled over that weekend period and in the period subsequently.
'The NHS has to recover from the industrial action, who will see their operations and appointments delayed,' Streeting told the House of Commons' committee.
'I have a relative in that position,' he added. 'My family are currently dreading what I fear is an inevitable phone call saying that there is going to be a delay to this procedure. And I just think this is an unconscionable thing to do to the public, not least given the 28.9 per cent pay rise.'
BMA representatives and the health secretary are due to meet this week, 'to see if we can avert strike action', Streeting said.
He added that the doctors had 'chosen confrontation' and that he did not see 'a reasonable trade union partner in the RDC section of the BMA at this time'.
Streeting added: 'The other thing that I have found actually shockingly irresponsible about the BMA's position is their leaders seem to be telling their members not to inform their trusts or their employers if they're going out on strike.
'Now, I might not agree with the BMA strike action, but I do accept they have a right to strike. I do accept that they follow the rules in order to go on strike.
'What I cannot fathom is how any doctor in good conscience would make it harder for managers to make sure we have safe staffing levels. So I just think the sort of the BMA's approach to this from start to finish has been completely wrong.'
Sir Jim Mackey, the NHS England chief, told the committee that the action would be 'hugely disruptive'.
In September, junior doctors voted to accept a government pay deal of 22.3 per cent on average over two years. In the most recent pay award, for 2025-2026, junior doctors were given a four per cent uplift, plus £750 — giving an average rise of 5.4 per cent.
There aren't many people who would volunteer to be the public face of the most unpopular junior doctor strikes to date. The task has fallen to 'unashamedly socialist' Emma Runswick, the current deputy chairwoman of the council, and one of the highest-ranking junior doctors in the BMA.
The daughter of Jeremy Corbyn-backing trade unionists, Runswick has described herself as 'very left wing'. Runwick's mother, Kathy Runswick, is the former chairwoman of the Wallasey Constituency Labour Party.
In an interview on the BBC's Today programme on Monday morning, Runswick was asked if she was a 'militant lefty'. In response, she said: 'Oh yeah, I'm left wing. But that doesn't reflect necessarily the whole variety of views that doctors have. And actually it is our aim: if you are on the left, you want the NHS to be an excellent service, you want patients to get good care. I stand by that.'
Writing on an online forum under the pseudonym RedRunswick, she wrote before the 2023 strikes: 'This change in attitude has happened because of a concerted organising effort among lefties, and we have pushed the BMA to a slightly more militant position.'
When asked if the strikes would 'bring the NHS to its knees', she said: 'We never bring the NHS to its knees, we always leave safe care, emergency critical care is always provided.'
She added: 'Our […] repeated overwhelming mandates for strike action show that doctors are fed up of receiving repeated real terms pay cuts.
'Doctors are still starting on less than £18 an hour. I've been qualified over six years, I'm regularly looking after seven or eight wards overnight by myself. I will be the only person with any degree of advanced life support training. I'm earning less than £24 an hour.
'The people who are doing brain surgery at 3am, covering the most critically unwell people, less than £34 an hour. You would pay a plumber more. It is not unreasonable for us to ask for our pay cuts to be reversed.'
Runswick's father, Alan, was a member of the Public and Commercial Services Union and also vice-chairman of the Wallasey constituency Labour Party's membership team.
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