Labour Promised To End Public Sector Strikes. So Why Are They Happening Again?

A demonstration in support of strikers is seen in central Manchester, England, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023.When Labour won an election landslide last year, they promised to end the public sector strikes which had bedevilled the Tories.To their credit, the new government delivered – agreeing a pay deal with resident (formerly known as junior) doctors in September 2024, leading to the British Medical Association calling off their long-running industrial action.Resident doctors agreed to a 5.4% pay rise for this financial year, which is set to kick in from August, on top of the 22% increase they had received the previous two years.But all of that progress appears to fallen apart in recent months, leading to the BMA announcing that their members will go on strike for five consecutive days later this month.So how did we end up here again?Why are resident doctors threatening to strike?According to the BMA, wages for resident doctors are still around 20% lower in real terms than they were in 2008 – even after the recent pay hikes they’ve received.The chair of the BMA council, Professor Philip Banfield, warned health secretary Wes Streeting in June that his members would strike again unless he came up with more money.He said: “The only path that will avoid strike action is the one that leads doctors to full pay restoration.”The union followed up on their threat on Tuesday, announcing they had “a clear mandate to strike” with support from more than 90% of its members who had voted in a strike ballot.The BMA also claimed it had met with the government to try and avoid strike action, but ministers are refusing to negotiate.On Wednesday, they confirmed they would be staging a walkout from 7am on July 25 to 7am on July 30.That means ministers have a fortnight to negotiate – or there will be more industrial action.Resident doctors’ basic salaries in England can range from £37,000 to £70,000 a year for a 40-hour week depending on their experience.That does not include the 5.4% pay award for this year, while extra payments are available for those who work nightshifts and weekends.The action will not hit resident doctors in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, who negotiate directly with their own devolved governments.The results are in: we have a clear mandate to strike.More than 90% of you who voted in our ballot, voted YES.You’ve made it clear: enough is enough.Our fight for full #PayRestoration for resident doctors in England continues. pic.twitter.com/fjmCQUNIS8— Resident Doctors (@BMAResidents) July 8, 2025How has the government responded? Wes Streeting has said the planned strike action is “completely unreasonable” and puts the government’s attempts to improve the NHS at risk.He said: “I wrote to the BMA this morning to offer to meet their committee and work with them to improve the working lives of resident doctors. Instead of talking, they’ve announced strikes.“No trade union in British history has seen its members receive a 28.9% pay rise only to immediately respond with strikes, and the majority of BMA resident doctors didn’t vote to strike. This is completely unreasonable.“The NHS recovery is hanging by a thread, and the BMA are threatening to pull it. The BMA should abandon their rush to strike and work with us to improve resident doctors’ working lives instead.”It’s quite the change of tone from the senior minister who started his job vowing to “engage meaningfully” with the BMA, and agreed an offer to end the strikes in just over three weeks.Streeting also wrote on X: “A pay rise of 28.9%. The highest pay rise in the entire public sector this year. A genuine commitment to work together on things like rotations, placements, progression. These are NOT the conditions for strike action. I urge the BMA to work with me.”In a public letter to the BMA, he also suggested only a few members had been present to vote in the ballot, pointed out that 5.4% pay hike was “significantly higher than affordability” and even demanded a reprioritisation of the NHS budget.Streeting added: “While we cannot go further on pay this year, there is so much more we can do together to improve the lives of resident doctors and the wider NHS”.He claimed further strikes would see the BMA “turn its back on that open door” just when the NHS is “finally moving in the right direction”.The minister said he was willing to meet with them again, but warned: “You will not find another health and social care secretary as sympathetic to resident doctors as me. By choosing to strike instead of working in partnership to improve conditions for your members and the NHS, you are squandering an opportunity.”“The public won’t see why, after a 28.9% pay rise, you would still walk out on strike, and neither do I,” Streeting concluded.After a 28.9% pay rise thanks to a Labour government, patients and the public will be dismayed that the BMA is choosing to strike - and so am I.I have written to the BMA today reaffirming our preference to work together to improve their working lives and rebuild our NHS. pic.twitter.com/M5mphWg2yV— Wes Streeting (@wesstreeting) July 9, 2025Do you have deja-vu?You’re not the only one.Resident doctors went on 11 separate strikes between 2023 and 2024 and contributed to a wider public sector dispute with the Tory government, dubbed the “summer of discontent”.Hopefully, the UK is not at the start of another deadlock, although there are always fears that one industry’s strikes could encourage another sector to do the same.But, it is evident that the government is far less willing to co-operate than it was 12 months ago.After a year of trying to deliver on the pledge to fix the NHS (and the rest of the country), the government has a long way to go to actually fix the health service.The NHS’s waiting list for treatments has fallen – but only from 7.6 million to list of 7.4 million treatments.The government target to ensure 92% of people waiting get seen within 18 weeks of referral by a GP by 2029 is also looking pretty out of reach.As the NHS Confederation chief executive Matthew Taylor said: “Hitting the 92% target is a difficult enough ambition without further industrial action.”The demand for higher pay will definitely have set off alarm bells in the Treasury too, considering there’s very little cash to spare especially after it lost £5bn of savings with its U-turns over welfare reform just last week. The government also put aside a hefty sum for the NHS earlier this year in its spending review: will it really be able to find some more to placate striking doctors?Or will the two sides end up in the same place the Tories were in: caught in an increasingly vicious stand-off?Related...Doctors Threaten Fresh Strike Action Over 'Woefully Inadequate' Government Pay OfferPublic Sector Unions In Fresh Strikes Warning Over 'Offensive' Government Pay Offer'Played Like A Fiddle': Ministers Slammed As Union Announces More Strikes Despite Pay Deal

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