'Isn’t it the case that a proper pay rise for junior doctors is affordable, it’s just that this government has the wrong priorities?'
Labour MP for East Leeds, Richard Burgon, has laid out to the Health Secretary how restoring the pay of junior doctors is ‘totally affordable’, by addressing the cost of tax avoidance by the super-wealthy.
Commenting on the 26% real terms pay cut on junior doctors’ wages since 2008/09, Burgon said that restoring their pay would cost around £1 billion a year – less than half the cost of what’s given away through the non-dom tax avoidance scheme.
Burgon reignited calls for a wealth tax, asking how Tory MPs can say a proper pay rise for NHS workers is unaffordable, when the total wealth of UK billionaires has risen three-fold over the last decade, from £212 billion in 2012 to £653 billion in 2022.
Speaking in Parliament, Burgon said: “We need to be clear, junior doctors have had a 26% real pay cut.
“Restoring their pay would cost around a billion pounds a year, that’s less than half the giveaway handed to the super-rich through the non-dom tax avoidance scheme.
“So isn’t it the case that a proper pay rise for junior doctors is affordable, it’s just that this government has the wrong priorities?”
Labour have said they will abolish the non-dom tax status, which they claim will launch the biggest expansion of staff in the history of the NHS.
Junior doctors are asking for a 35% pay increase to make up for the pay they have lost over the past decade and to address increased inflation.
The British Medical Association has urged the Health Secretary to ‘drop barriers to talks’ – which include abandoning the unions opening position on their pay demand.
The union have repeatedly expressed their willingness to negotiate around the pay offer but stated the Health Secretary Steve Barclay’s current position, ‘does not sound like someone who understands the pay pressures junior doctors are under, nor someone who wants to sit down with us.’
Last Friday, Barclay wrote a column in the Daily Express presenting his belief that the junior doctor pay demands would cause economic pressures on the country.
He expressed his concerns for patient safety during strike action and that strikes could hinder supposed progress being made in reducing NHS waiting lists.
Barclay then took to The Sun to publish another column where he further accused the nurses’ strikes of also putting patients at risk.
The Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting castigated Barclay for his newspaper columns, calling him an ‘observer’ of the disputes and accusing him of being unaware of the responsibilities of his job.
“It’s an absurb situation that the opposition are visible and answering questions, but the people who are actually in government today are nowhere to be seen,” fired Streeting.
“The only thing I’ve seen from Steve Barclay recently was a piece in The Sun newspaper today, where he says he’s really worried about patient safety as if he’s some kind of commentator or observer.
“Newsflash, you are the Health Secretary with both the power and the responsibility to resolve these disputes.”
Hannah Davenport is trade union reporter at Left Foot Forward
(Photo credit: GBNews / YouTube)
Left Foot Forward’s trade union reporting is supported by the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust
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