The UK’s biggest union for doctors has been accused of trying to infiltrate the organisation with “Corbynistas” by offering three months of free membership ahead of a planned vote on fresh strikes. In May, the government announced NHS resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, would be getting a healthy 5.4% pay rise this year – a higher bump than offered to nurses, and other public sector workers, such as teachers.
But disgruntled resident doctors, whose annual pay packet can reach more than £70,000, have staged 11 strikes between 2023 and 2024, and the British Medical Association (BMA) is now balloting on more strike action despite the latest pay increase offer. The BMA claims its members have endured “repeated below-inflation pay awards” and around 50,000 doctors have now been asked to vote on six months of strike action, with voting ending on July 7.
The Times reports the union’s leaders are urging non-members who are willing to strike to sign up in a bid to swell membership so that the turnout passes a 50% turnout threshold needed. Dr Melissa Ryan, co-chair of the resident doctors committee, posted online: “Plenty of time to join and vote YES. Three months free membership now open.”
The “new member offer” was launched on June 9, giving those signing up a chance to avoid the usual £44-a-month fee.
If union members carry a ‘Yes’ vote strikes could start as early of July 21. Health Secretary Wes Streeting warned industrial action was not in the interest of the NHS. He told the BBC:” I don’t think strikes are in their interests, in patients interests and I certainly don’t think it’s in the interest of the NHS overall.”
A Labour Party source told the Times: “Corbynista entryism killed the Labour Party for a decade. I beg of resident doctors, don’t let the BMA do the same to the NHS. The BMA rushed into this ballot before they had even seen the pay award. Now they admit the pay rise is “generous”, but refuse to correct the ballot papers.”
The BMA is seeking a huge 29% pay increase and announced it would ballot for strike action in May, before the government increase of 5.4% for 2025 and 2026. The latest pay award is on top of a 22% rise dished out by Labour last year. The latest BMA ballot does not mention the latest 5.4% award.
A BMA spokesperson told The Times: “At the time of production, it clearly would not have been possible to include any mention of a pay award the government hadn’t made.
“All information on the ballot was correct at the time the materials were produced. The BMA has long offered a three-month free trial membership for new members.”
Earlier this month, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) began asking more than 345,000 nursing staff if this year’s NHS pay award is enough in the biggest single vote of the profession ever launched in the UK. The government accepted the recommendation of the Pay Review Body, giving nursing staff In England’s NHS a pay award of 3.6%.
But the RCN said the pay award “entirely swallowed up by inflation” and that doctors, teachers, prison officers and the armed forces were all receiving a larger uplift. The RCN described the award for nursing staff being behind other professions as “grotesque”.
