Immediately after the Easter weekend, junior doctors are planning a six-day strike. Unless they call it off, Starmer has said today, they’ll be punished. They have been offered a deal. On the table is an above-inflation pay rise, along with government funding for postgraduate exams that doctors have historically paid for themselves, and an offer of 4,500 additional specialty training places. ‘There are still 48 hours left to choose a better path,’ said Starmer. After that, the offer disappears.

The strikes are being driven by those who are most radical in support of state healthcare in its current model. Their struggle is likely to accelerate its collapse

The strikes are being driven by those who are most radical in support of state healthcare in its current model. Their struggle is likely to accelerate its collapse

The strangest part of this is not the pay offer but the training places, which ministers seem willing to conjure up or withdraw according to the needs of a labour dispute. On March 5 this year the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026 received Royal Assent, prioritising domestic graduates (and a few bizarre exceptions, like Liechtenstein and Ireland) for training jobs. The legislation was introduced to fix a disaster of the government’s own making, in which foreign applicants were displacing British........

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