Streeting denies changing pay deal for resident doctors

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has told the BBC the government "categorically" did not change its deal with resident doctors to end ongoing industrial action over pay and jobs.

He also said he wanted to meet the "organ grinders" from the British Medical Association (BMA) resident doctors' committee for further negotiations - but claimed they had "point blank refused".

Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the committee, said in response that one or two-year settlements were discussed in negotiations and "at the very last minute" the government insisted "a three-year deal was the only option, with reduced investment".

The current six-day walkout in England is set to end at 06:59 on Monday.

In a statement to the BBC, Fletcher also said the BMA resident doctors' committee remained "open and willing to meet with the health secretary".

He added that throughout this dispute, the BMA has "negotiated in good faith with a genuine desire to reach a resolution".

Streeting told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that resident doctors "had a 28.9% pay rise within the first weeks of this Labour government".

"There's a deal on the table that would have given them an average 4.9% more for this year, 7.1% for some of the lowest-paid doctors."

Despite receiving pay rises worth 33% over the past four years, the BMA argues that doctors are still being paid a fifth less than they were in 2008 once inflation is taken into account.

Further addressing the union's accusation that the deal had been changed at the last minute, Streeting told Victoria Derbyshire, standing in for Kuenssberg, this would not be in his "interest or the government's".

The health secretary said either the BMA "didn't read the detail" of the deal or "faced with that enormous committee" it was "more convenient to blame the government".

He also said: "We've gone as far as we can, I'm never going to shut the door to the BMA, I'm not pretending I've solved all of their problems in less than two years.

"The BMA need to stop pretending that I can, there has to be some give and take."

The interview came hours after the health secretary published a letter on X that he had sent to the doctors' union, in which he expressed "disappointment and frustration" about the latest walkout.

He wrote that "most of the deal remains on the table", but he said the "financial and operational impact of [the BMA's] latest strikes has made it impossible for us to bring forward 1,000 of the 4,500 extra training places to this year".