Health Secretary says junior doctors ‘suddenly’ walked away from talks

Health Secretary Steve Barclay has accused junior doctors of “suddenly” walking away from talks.

Junior doctors are planning to stage the largest walkout in the history of the NHS later this month with a five-day strike from July 13-18.

Mr Barclay told the Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme on Sky News: “We were in the middle of discussing some of those wider non-pay issues.

“It was the junior doctors suddenly who walked away.”

The British Medical Association (BMA) said it is willing to continue talks.

Challenged over whether a 6% pay rise for NHS would be acceptable, Mr Barclay said: “These will be discussions that I have on behalf of the health workforce with the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, that the Education Secretary will have on behalf of teachers, and other ministers will have across government, so we will have those and we’ll make announcements in due course.”

He said the Government had recognised both the needs of staff and the needs of the wider economy with recent pay talks.

He said that was “exactly what we have done with the Agenda for Change, which is why not only did we apply the full pay review body recommendations, we actually went further in terms of a lump sum this time because we hugely recognise the pressure that NHS staff have been under”.

“Of course we need to look at the wider pressures in terms of inflation… we need to look at these things in the round.

“That’s what we did last time, which is why we made adjustments.

“Of course we will take a similar approach this time.”

Co-chairman of the BMA junior doctors committee Dr Vivek Trivedi said: “We have always been willing to continue talking.

“It was the Government who cancelled our remaining meetings after we called for strike action, but we have made it clear that we will call strikes off if (Rishi) Sunak makes a credible offer.

“A 5% offer when inflation is in double digits is yet another real-terms pay cut, and would only worsen the already 26% real-terms pay cut we’ve endured prior to that.

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that Steve Barclay has been negotiating in bad faith.

“Ministers need to understand that they have totally discredited the supposed independence of the pay review body.”

Consultants – the most senior doctors in the NHS – are also planning to stage industrial action on July 20 and 21, where they will only provide scaled-back “Christmas Day cover”.

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson also faced questions on Sunday about whether Labour would accept the recommendations of pay review bodies.

Asked if a Labour government would accept a 6.5% pay rise for teachers if suggested by the pay review body, Ms Phillipson said she had not seen the report because the Government “won’t” publish it.

“I would see that as the starting point for negotiation; we can’t get anywhere unless we’re prepared to negotiate,” she said, adding: “I’m not going to come on this programme and commit to a figure, I wouldn’t expect the Secretary of State to do that either; that is what will happen during the course of a negotiation.”

Instead of dealing with those fundamental issues which are causing already trained NHS doctors to quit and move abroad to places where they have a chance of being properly paid and appreciated, (Steve) Barclay is trying to take us on a trip to la la land

Speaking to BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, she said: “Labour governments always want to prioritise education and make sure we properly support people working in teaching with fair and affordable pay settlements.

“But who knows what the situation will be if we win that election because the Conservatives crashed the economy, have behaved utterly recklessly, and that will present some tough choices.”

Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, said: “Steve Barclay just doesn’t get it.

“Junior doctors up and down the country have had a real-terms pay cut of around 26% since 2008/9.

“There are more than 110,000 vacancies in the NHS workforce right now – that’s one in 10 posts unfilled.

“But instead of dealing with those fundamental issues which are causing already trained NHS doctors to quit and move abroad to places where they have a chance of being properly paid and appreciated, Barclay is trying to take us on a trip to la la land.”