Kemi Badenoch has offered to work with the Labour government “in the national interest” to tackle the “militant” doctors’ strike – but only if Keir Starmer reverses a key election pledge.
With resident doctors – previously called junior doctors – in the middle of a five-day strike over their demand for a 29 per cent pay rise, the Tory leader has warned that “people are going to die” as a result.
And speaking to Sir Trevor Phillips on Sky News, she said the government needs to go back on its plans to scrap the minimum service guarantee during strikes which the previous Conservative government brought in to tackle striking doctors.
She also wants the government to ban doctors from going on strike in the same category as the police and military.
The row comes at a difficult time for the government with health secretary Wes Streeting facing a legal challenge from physician associates after he limited their roles at the same time as doctors going on strike.
But Ms Badenoch’s remarks have provoked fury among trade unions who have pushed the government to stick to its workers’ rights package.
They have also fuelled anger over the way Tory and Lib Dem peers are holding up the workers’ rights legislation in the House of Lords with more than 600 amendments proposed.
The bill is at its third and final reading with peers when they come back from the summer recess but looks set to be amended and sent back to the Commons for a rethink. There are fears that the delay by so-called “ping pong” between the two houses of parliament will mean that the package may not be implemented for months.
It is understood that before the election, chancellor Rachel Reeves had been in favour of watering down the workers’ rights package which is being pushed through by deputy prime minister Angela Rayner. However, a last-ditch meeting with union leaders, Sir Keir Starmer and Ms Rayner before the manifesto launch saw the plan restored as a priority.
In her comments, Ms Badenoch made it clear that there will be a push to remove the part of the bill which will take away the minimum service guarantee.
She said: “We need to bring this sort of strike action by doctors to an end. The Conservative Party is happy to work with Labour in the national interest, versus the BMA, which has become increasingly militant.
“We need to introduce minimum service levels. That’s something that we brought in when we were in government. I did that as business secretary. Labour scrapped that. But this is the 11th strike that we’re seeing since 2023.”
She pointed out that doctors had a 28 per cent pay rise last year, calling their demands for 29 per cent this year “unrealistic”.
Ms Badenoch added: “What we need to look at is, who suffers. The last set of strikes meant that patients died. People die when these strikes happen. It’s not a joke. And I don’t think that Labour know how to negotiate.”
Speaking later on the programme, BMA chair Dr Tom Dolphin insisted “doctors do not want to strike”.
He repeated the line that the dispute is about “pay restoration” because they have lost a fifth in the value of their salaries. And he warned that doctors are leaving the country to find better pay elsewhere.
He said the problem was that the government this time is insisting on senior doctors carrying out pre-planned operations during the strikes when they should be covering emergency care instead.
He said: “Senior doctors can’t be in two places at once. They can’t both be looking after the planned-care patients and also looking after the emergencies. So of course, they’re going to go and look after the emergencies because they’re an emergency, and planned-care patients are going to end up being cancelled on the day.”
Mr Streeting has blasted the BMA for trying to “hold the country to ransom”.
But unions warned the government against taking up Ms Badenoch’s offer and watering down workers’ rights legislation.
A TUC spokesperson said: “Attacking the right to strike is not the way to resolve disputes – it will just escalate tensions.
“Not one single employer has used minimum service levels since they were introduced under the last Conservative government – employers know they are unworkable and would poison industrial relations.
“What is needed here is a negotiated settlement – not the Tory leader cynically and opportunistically stirring the pot.”
Meanwhile, the physicians associates union UMAPs has sent Mr Streeting a pre-action letter notifying them of an intended judicial review claim. This comes after a decision to limit physician associate contracts following recommendations made in a review by Professor Gillian Leng which raised safety concerns because of a lack of qualifications.
They point out that physician associates (PAs) and anaesthesia associates (AAs) had previously carried out 20 million appointments a year and limiting their scope has “played into the hands of striking doctors”.
Stephen Nash, general secretary of UMAPs, said: “It is hard to see Mr Streeting’s decision as anything other than an attempt to mollify the increasingly radical BMA, which has spent the last few years waging a vindictive and highly coordinated campaign against medical associates.
“Now he has played right into the BMA’s hands, preventing qualified medical professionals from treating patients properly so that their strikes bite even harder.”
