The government offered junior doctors in England a 22.3% pay rise to end the strike.
The British Medical Association’s (BMA) junior doctors’ committee has agreed to put the offer to its members and, if accepted, it will end months of pay strikes.
The pay rise offer will take place over two years, according to The Times.
It constitutes a salary increase of between 8.1% and 10.3%, as well as a retroactive increase of 4.05% for 2023-24.
This is in addition to a 6% pay rise for 2024-2025, topped up by a £1,000 payment – the equivalent of a pay rise of between 7% and 9%.
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Chancellor Rachel Reeves will announce the pay rises this afternoon when she delivers a big speech about spending cuts to plug what she says is a “£20 billion black hole” inherited from the Conservative government.
Junior doctors had been pushing for a 35% pay rise to offset what they say is 15 years of below-inflation pay rises.
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The prime minister’s spokesman said the government is “committed to working to find a solution”.
“We have been honest with the public and the sector about the economic circumstances we face,” he added.
“But the government is determined to do the hard work necessary to finally end these strikes.”
He added that the industrial action has been “extremely damaging both to patients and the impact on waiting lists and we have said that we are committed to finding a solution and resolving this dispute”.
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Junior doctors went on strike during elections
The cost of canceled operations and appointments due to strikes over the last year and a half has cost the NHS in England around £3 billion.
Vicky Pryce, chief economic adviser at the Center for Economic and Business Research, told Sky News the government “probably can” afford a 22.3% pay rise for junior doctors as it is lower than the 35% rise they have required, estimated to cost between £1 billion and £2 billion.
“If you look at the cost to the NHS and basically the taxpayer in all the appointments that haven’t happened since December 2022, that totaled around £3 billion anyway,” she said.
“So it’s much better for us to afford it than to have something similar that continues, you know, for the next year or two. So, yes, we can afford it.”
Junior doctors went on strike for the last time on election day, 4 July, after an independent arbitration they had agreed would take place in May, with the last government being ousted when elections were called.
Last year, the BMA walked away from negotiations with the Conservative government in which an extra 3% pay rise was discussed on top of an average 9% increase for 2022-23.
Junior doctors are any doctor below consultant level and make up almost half of the NHS medical workforce, so the strike days caused major disruption.
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