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The NHS isn’t just in crisis — it’s in open revolt.
Resident doctors in England walked out today – 50,000 of them – launching a five-day strike that could grow into six months of rolling action.
They’re demanding what they’ve been demanding for more than a year: pay restoration — a return to real-terms wages they earned in 2008, before austerity hollowed out public services and frontline pay.
This isn’t a new fight. But what’s changed is the government.
And to the shock of many, Labour is now betraying doctors in exactly the same way the Conservatives did.
“There is no serious plan to reverse a decade and a half of decline,”
said British Medical Association chair Prof Philip Banfield.
“Doctors are exhausted, underpaid, and now being gaslit by a government that claimed it had our backs.”
This is not hyperbole. Labour, elected on a promise to “fix the NHS,” offered doctors a 22 per cent pay rise over two years — but that still left salaries more than 20 per cent behind 2008 levels, once inflation is accounted for.
The BMA says it’s not enough. And doctors, who have now endured more than a decade of below-inflation pay deals, are walking out.
They warned this would happen.
Labour is pretending to be surprised.
What did doctors vote for?
Before the 2024 election, Labour’s message to health workers was clear: we hear you, we’ll restore trust, and we’ll be different.
In power, that has become: Take the deal. Stop causing trouble.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has spent the week publicly condemning the BMA, accusing its leadership of recklessness and calling on doctors to defy their own union — a move that feels less like public service and more like political theatre.
“This enormously undermines the entire trade union movement,”
he wrote in The Guardian, as though doctors asking to reverse a 17-year pay cut are somehow threatening the nation’s stability.
Keir Starmer added his voice, warning that the strikes would cause “real damage” and insisting that “most people do not support” the action.
But here’s the problem: doctors aren’t striking to win a popularity contest. They’re striking because they’ve run out of options.
And they’re right to be angry.
While MPs’ salaries have kept pace with inflation since 2008, newly qualified doctors are still paid less — per hour — than the assistants working alongside them: £18.62 an hour for a doctor – £24 for the assistant.
It’s not a gimmick; it’s a reality doctors live every shift.
Streeting calls that comparison “disingenuous,” pointing to headline salaries that include antisocial hours and premium shifts.
But that doesn’t change the fact that core pay — the amount doctors receive for their skill, knowledge, and responsibility — has been allowed to wither.
This isn’t just about pay – it’s about trust.
Streeting says there was “a deal to be done.”
Doctors say they were offered nothing new.
And Labour’s insistence that the issue is closed — while simultaneously attacking the BMA’s leadership — reveals the real game here: undermining the union, not understanding the workforce.
The argument now hinges on tired lines:
-
“We’ve already been generous.”
-
“The union is out of touch.”
-
“The public won’t support this.”
Sound familiar? It should. These were the same lines used by Conservative ministers to justify pay cuts, deny strikes, and smear workers.
But now it’s Labour using the same talking points — while insisting they represent a “new deal for working people.”
A new deal where Labour MPs are protected from the pay erosion everyone else is expected to endure.
A new deal where strikes are treated as threats, not bargaining tools.
A new deal that sounds a lot like the old one — with better PR.
What Labour doesn’t seem to grasp is that resident doctors aren’t demanding charity. They’re demanding fairness.
And they’re prepared to fight for it — even when the government they helped elect tells them not to.
Undermining unions is a choice. So is this crisis.
Streeting says this strike undermines the trade union movement. In reality, it’s his government’s intransigence that does that.
The BMA has been clear: this strike didn’t need to happen. All doctors wanted was a meaningful pathway to pay restoration — not a vague promise of “better working lives” or some televised scolding in The Times.
Instead, Labour is treating the strike as a loyalty test – not just for doctors, but for voters: “Accept what we offer — or you’re helping the Tories.”
Isn’t that blackmail?
When doctors say this is about survival, not slogans, they mean it.
Burnout is rampant.
Vacancies are rising.
Waiting lists are ballooning.
Morale is in the gutter.
And the government’s answer is to threaten rota restrictions, strip doctors of locum work, and tell the media the strikes aren’t really supported.
That’s not leadership – it’s gaslighting.
Starmer’s broken contract
Labour was elected on trust — a belief that the party had changed and would finally restore dignity to the NHS workforce.
But now, Labour’s top officials are behaving like the government they replaced: clinging to arbitrary fiscal rules, ignoring frontline voices, and spinning public anger as union radicalism.
The strikes may continue for months. Other NHS staff are now balloting. And if Labour keeps doubling down on austerity politics, this could mark the start of a new winter of discontent.
But the bigger picture is this:
Labour can’t claim to rebuild the NHS while hollowing out the workers who keep it alive.
The doctors remember what they were promised.
And so do the voters.
Share this post:
Labour’s war on resident doctors shows whose side the government is really on
Share this post:
The NHS isn’t just in crisis — it’s in open revolt.
Resident doctors in England walked out today – 50,000 of them – launching a five-day strike that could grow into six months of rolling action.
They’re demanding what they’ve been demanding for more than a year: pay restoration — a return to real-terms wages they earned in 2008, before austerity hollowed out public services and frontline pay.
This isn’t a new fight. But what’s changed is the government.
And to the shock of many, Labour is now betraying doctors in exactly the same way the Conservatives did.
said British Medical Association chair Prof Philip Banfield.
This is not hyperbole. Labour, elected on a promise to “fix the NHS,” offered doctors a 22 per cent pay rise over two years — but that still left salaries more than 20 per cent behind 2008 levels, once inflation is accounted for.
The BMA says it’s not enough. And doctors, who have now endured more than a decade of below-inflation pay deals, are walking out.
They warned this would happen.
Labour is pretending to be surprised.
What did doctors vote for?
Before the 2024 election, Labour’s message to health workers was clear: we hear you, we’ll restore trust, and we’ll be different.
In power, that has become: Take the deal. Stop causing trouble.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has spent the week publicly condemning the BMA, accusing its leadership of recklessness and calling on doctors to defy their own union — a move that feels less like public service and more like political theatre.
he wrote in The Guardian, as though doctors asking to reverse a 17-year pay cut are somehow threatening the nation’s stability.
Keir Starmer added his voice, warning that the strikes would cause “real damage” and insisting that “most people do not support” the action.
But here’s the problem: doctors aren’t striking to win a popularity contest. They’re striking because they’ve run out of options.
And they’re right to be angry.
While MPs’ salaries have kept pace with inflation since 2008, newly qualified doctors are still paid less — per hour — than the assistants working alongside them: £18.62 an hour for a doctor – £24 for the assistant.
It’s not a gimmick; it’s a reality doctors live every shift.
Streeting calls that comparison “disingenuous,” pointing to headline salaries that include antisocial hours and premium shifts.
But that doesn’t change the fact that core pay — the amount doctors receive for their skill, knowledge, and responsibility — has been allowed to wither.
This isn’t just about pay – it’s about trust.
Streeting says there was “a deal to be done.”
Doctors say they were offered nothing new.
And Labour’s insistence that the issue is closed — while simultaneously attacking the BMA’s leadership — reveals the real game here: undermining the union, not understanding the workforce.
The argument now hinges on tired lines:
“We’ve already been generous.”
“The union is out of touch.”
“The public won’t support this.”
Sound familiar? It should. These were the same lines used by Conservative ministers to justify pay cuts, deny strikes, and smear workers.
But now it’s Labour using the same talking points — while insisting they represent a “new deal for working people.”
What Labour doesn’t seem to grasp is that resident doctors aren’t demanding charity. They’re demanding fairness.
And they’re prepared to fight for it — even when the government they helped elect tells them not to.
Undermining unions is a choice. So is this crisis.
Streeting says this strike undermines the trade union movement. In reality, it’s his government’s intransigence that does that.
The BMA has been clear: this strike didn’t need to happen. All doctors wanted was a meaningful pathway to pay restoration — not a vague promise of “better working lives” or some televised scolding in The Times.
Instead, Labour is treating the strike as a loyalty test – not just for doctors, but for voters: “Accept what we offer — or you’re helping the Tories.”
Isn’t that blackmail?
When doctors say this is about survival, not slogans, they mean it.
Burnout is rampant.
Vacancies are rising.
Waiting lists are ballooning.
Morale is in the gutter.
And the government’s answer is to threaten rota restrictions, strip doctors of locum work, and tell the media the strikes aren’t really supported.
That’s not leadership – it’s gaslighting.
Starmer’s broken contract
Labour was elected on trust — a belief that the party had changed and would finally restore dignity to the NHS workforce.
But now, Labour’s top officials are behaving like the government they replaced: clinging to arbitrary fiscal rules, ignoring frontline voices, and spinning public anger as union radicalism.
The strikes may continue for months. Other NHS staff are now balloting. And if Labour keeps doubling down on austerity politics, this could mark the start of a new winter of discontent.
But the bigger picture is this:
Labour can’t claim to rebuild the NHS while hollowing out the workers who keep it alive.
The doctors remember what they were promised.
And so do the voters.
Share this post:
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