Doctors begin strike in UK

Thousands of junior doctors across the United Kingdom commenced a five-day strike early Friday following the breakdown of negotiations with Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government over improved pay.

Picket lines formed outside hospitals after last-minute discussions on Thursday night failed to yield an agreement. The industrial action marks a continuation of unrest within the National Health Service, with junior doctors—those below consultant level—saying they had “no choice” but to resume strikes in protest against ongoing pay deterioration.

Despite agreeing last September to a two-year pay increase totaling 22.3 per cent shortly after Labour assumed power, junior doctors argue that the settlement falls short of reversing what they describe as more than a decade of real-term income losses.

Prime Minister Starmer, addressing the strike in The Times, warned that the action would jeopardize patient care and further burden the NHS.

“Launching a strike will mean everyone loses,” he wrote, adding, “Lives will be blighted by this decision.”

Starmer urged doctors not to follow the lead of the British Medical Association (BMA), saying: “Our NHS and your patients need you.”

The BMA’s junior doctors committee leaders, Melissa Ryan and Ross Nieuwoudt, defended the walkout in a statement, asserting: “We’re not working 21 per cent less hard so why should our pay suffer?”

The union claims junior doctor salaries have declined by over 21 per cent in real terms since 2008, a figure at the heart of their demand for “pay restoration.”

Health Secretary Wes Streeting also appealed to the striking doctors in an open letter published in The Telegraph, arguing that the government cannot stretch the pay budget any further this year.

The previous Conservative administration had similarly rejected the BMA’s call for a 35 per cent pay adjustment to match inflation over the past decade.

Last year, the UK saw a wave of strikes across various public and private sectors in response to rising inflation, including prolonged walkouts by healthcare workers that led to widespread disruption of medical services.

In an attempt to calm industrial tensions, the Labour government previously reached agreements with other public sector groups, such as a 15 per cent three-year pay package for train drivers—an offer that drew criticism from the Conservative opposition.