Junior doctor issues a warning to the Labour Party live on Sky News

Speaking to Sky News, Dr Robert Laurenson challenged the political establishment’s line on the junior doctor’s pay dispute. About 25,000 junior doctors are undertaking another five days of strike action to demand what they say is the same real terms pay as 2008. Both the Labour and Tory leadership have refused to adhere – and Laurenson issued a warning to Keir Starmer’s party.

Laurenson, who is the BMA’s junior doctors’ committee co-chair, said:

The truth of the matter is though that doctors starts on 15 pounds an hour and we’re asking for doctors to be paid about 21 pounds an hour

He continued:

No doctor is worth less than they were in 2008. Our ask is to restore doctors’ pay back to that level

MPs’ pay increases dwarfs doctors’

A comparison between MPs’ pay increase and junior doctors’ since 2008 is revealing. MPs pay went from £61,820 in 2008 to £86,584 in 2023. While junior doctors’ base pay went from £28,274 to £32,398.

Laurenson also responded to criticism that the government isn’t currently operating, so ‘why strike?’ He said:

The government is lying to everyone. That’s not our ask. Our ask this time is for a credible commitment just like any other commitment the prime minister has been making… to pay restoration. We know they can’t do a deal right now. But what they can do is write down exactly what they’d do should they form the next government

Jeremy Corbyn and Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer joined the doctors on their 11th strike. Denyer linked doctors’ pay to the wider staffing problem in the NHS. As the BMA points out:

In comparison to other nations, England has a very low proportion of doctors relative to the population. The average number of doctors per 1,000 people in OECD EU nations is 3.7, but England has just 2.9. Germany, by comparison, has 4.3.

The NHS is lacking 121,000 full-time roles. With social care, there are another 152,000 vacancies. This is much higher than overall UK vacancies. Denyer said on ITV:

It’s.. not surprising that there is a workforce problem in the NHS. We’re clear in the Greens that spending money on a workforce plan but not paying that workforce properly… the Greens are clear we need to invest in our current workforce, otherwise your just pouring water into the top of a bucket while it leaks out the bottom

Other countries invest way more than UK on healthcare

A protestor at the junior doctors’ strike in London, meanwhile, noted that the government has underfunded the NHS and compared that to European counterparts.

Matching health spending per person to Germany, for example, would increase NHS annual funding by £73bn, an 39% increase in the budget. Restoring junior doctors’ pay would cost around £1bn per year.

Despite all this, nothing will change under a prospective Labour government. The Nuffield Trust has warned that both Labour and Tory plans for the NHS are worse than David Cameron’s austerity. And shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has rejected the junior doctors’ pay increase.

Labour has no plans to fix the NHS and is set to privatise more of it. We must vote for candidates and parties that uphold the NHS as a fully public service. Laurenson had a final warning for Starmer’s party:

“If an incoming government under Keir Starmer wants to continue lying, then strikes will have to continue.”

Healthcare staff are the only workers who have not received pay restoration, says Dr @RobLaurensonD4P, on the first day another wave of junior doctors’ strike.

📺 Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/AGiqlWtjls

— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 27, 2024