Junior doctors ‘not exceptional’ when it comes to impact of inflation, says minister

Published

2 years ago

July 14, 2023

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Junior doctors are “not exceptional in having inflation pressures” on their wages and should take the government’s proposed pay rise “seriously”, a minister has said.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed on Thursday that he would be accepting recommendations from public sector pay review bodies to increase wages across the board – albeit without giving departments extra funding to pay for it.

As a result, an offer of a 6% rise, plus a one-off payment of £1,250, was made to junior doctors.

Politics live: Junior doctors’ strike continues for second day

But the British Medical Association (BMA) – whose members are currently on strike and are calling for a full 35% pay restoration to bring salaries back to 2008 levels – said the new figure “serves only to increase the losses faced by doctors after more than a decade’s worth of sub-inflation pay awards”.

Asked by Sky News about the BMA’s reaction, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said junior doctors were “not unusual” in the pressures they were facing as “every single person actually across the world, not even just across this country, has seen the impacts of inflation”.

She added: “So [junior doctors] are not exceptional in having, you know, inflation pressures. We all have inflationary pressures. Everybody does.”

Ms Keegan said it was a “tricky balancing act” to make pay offers without fuelling further increases in inflation, and the government was “trying to be fair”.

She said: “The independent pay review bodies have done a very thorough analysis, and they look at rates of recruitment, retention, they look at all the other sort of professions or similar professions, so they do do a very thorough job.

“And so, you know, I think it’s only fair that [junior doctors] should look at that and take that seriously.”

Sunak’s commitment to pay rises leaves long-term funding question

Rob Powell

Political correspondent

@robpowellnews

For the education secretary, this morning was a victory lap. Her team are cock-a-hoop with the resolution to teacher’s pay.

In the Department for Education, the extra money will be found by using underspends for this year and next that would usually be returned to the Treasury.

Education officials characterise this allowance by the chancellor as coming close to new money being provided.

But there is an issue with using one-off annual underspends to fund permanent pay commitments.

Come the next spending review, the extra money needed for the pay rises will need to be baked into broader government plans.

As it stands the overall budget for those plans looks far too tight to accommodate these bumper pay rises.

For many, this is more evidence that spending plans for after 2024 are a complete fiction.

But they are potentially a fiction that both parties will fight next year’s election committed to.

As for doctors, the news is less positive for the government.

It appears that both sides are locked in a total stalemate, with Rishi Sunak refusing more talks with the BMA.

For junior doctors, this is seen as more existential than a simple pay negotiation – it is about stopping medics leaving the UK and how the profession is valued.

The practical outcome, however, will be more strike action extending through the year.

That’s bad for patients.

But given his commitment to cut waiting lists, it’s also bad for the prime minister.

But the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Paul Nowak, told Sky News it would be “remiss of the government to ignore the concerns of NHS staff”.

“I think [junior doctors] have been very clear all along that what they want to see is a pathway to pay restoration,” he said. “That’s really important if we’re going to solve the recruitment and retention crisis in our NHS.

“Now, I don’t think [the unions] believe the government is going to put 35% on the table this year. I think what they want from the government is to set out how they are going to restore pay and how they are going to solve the recruitment and retention crisis for junior doctors, and indeed for more senior staff in the NHS.”

Mr Nowak added: “Across the public and private sector, workers are still facing another real terms pay cut, we’ve got a government that’s got no long-term plan for boosting wages and instead, it actually is intent on attacking trade unions who are standing up for people to get decent wage rises.

“I want a government that’s serious about engaging with unions and serious about listening to public and private sector workers, rather than attacking trade unions.”

Politics

Diane Abbott suspended from Labour Party

Published

2 hours ago

July 18, 2025

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Diane Abbott suspended from Labour Party

Diane Abbott has been suspended from the Labour Party pending an investigation.

A party spokesperson confirmed the decision to Sky News but did not give a reason why.

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It comes after the veteran MP defended previous comments about racism which sparked an antisemitism row and led to a year-long suspension.

She apologised at the time and was readmitted back into the party before the 2024 general election.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Diane Abbott has been administratively suspended from the Labour Party, pending an investigation. We cannot comment further while this investigation is ongoing.”

Sky News understands that the suspension is not related to the four rebels who lost the whip on Wednesday for “repeated breaches” of party discipline, including voting against the government’s welfare cuts.

The action has been taken because of an interview in which she doubled down on her claim Jewish people experience racism differently to black people, which previously sparked a huge controversy.

In a letter to The Observer in 2023, Ms Abbott argued that people of colour experienced racism “all their lives” and said that was different to the “prejudice” experienced by Jewish people, Irish people and Travellers.

Shortly after it was published, she issued a statement in which she said she wished to “wholly and unreservedly withdraw my remarks and disassociate myself from them”.

However in a new interview with BBC Radio 4’s Reflections programme this week, she said she did not look back on the incident with regret.

Ms Abbott said: “Clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don’t know.

“But if you see a black person walking down the street, you see straight away that they’re black. They are different types of racism.”

She added: “I just think that it’s silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism.

“I don’t know why people would say that.”

Commenting on the suspension, Ms Abbott told Sky News: “It’s obvious this Labour leadership wants me out. My comments in the interview with James Naughtie were factually correct, as any fair-minded person would accept.”

The clip of the interview was re-posted by Brian Leishman, one of the MPs suspended on Wednesday, who said: “Diane Abbott has fought against racism her entire life.”

Bell Riberio-Addy, who lost her role as trade envoy in yesterday’s purge, also came to Ms Abbott’s defence, saying: “Before condemning her based on headlines, I would listen to her clip and note she discussed the different forms that racism takes and condemned all forms of racism.”

Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell made similar comments, saying that in the interview his colleague “forthrightly condemns antisemitism & discusses the different forms of racism”.

But Labour MP David Taylor told Sky News he has “long thought Diane Abbott shouldn’t be a member of our party due to her appalling positions on everything from Bosnia to Syria”.

He added: “As the Jewish Labour Movement have said, antisemitism targets Jews regardless of how they look, and many in the community are visibly Jewish and suffer racism for it.”

In the interview, Ms Abbott said she “of course” condemns antisemitic behaviour in the same way she would condemn racist behaviour because of the colour of someone’s skin, adding: “I do get a bit weary of people trying to pin the antisemitic label on me because I spent a lifetime facing racism of all kinds.”

Ms Abbott made history when she was elected as Britain’s first black female MP for Labour in 1987.

She is the longest-serving female MP in the Commons, giving her the title “Mother of the House”.

As an MP on the left of the party she has often clashed with the leadership throughout her career – bar her time serving in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet.

Many MPs rallied in support of Ms Abbott last year when it was not clear if she would be reinstated in time for the general election, or allowed to stand.

She went on to retain her seat of Hackney North and Stoke Newington with a majority of over 15,000.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner hinted action could be taken against Ms Abbott when she told The Guardian earlier on Thursday that she was “disappointed” in her colleague’s remarks.

“There’s no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party, and obviously the Labour Party has processes for that,” she said.

A source close to the decision to suspend her told Sky News there is a “very slim chance” she will be allowed back in, given she did antisemitism training and apologised last time.

It raises questions about whether Ms Abbott could join the new party being formed by Mr Corbyn and former Labour MP Zarah Sultana.

For the time being, Ms Abbott will sit in the Commons as an independent MP.

Adnan Hussain, who was elected as the independent MP for Blackburn last year, said on X: “We’d be honoured to have a giant like Diane join us, she [should] come to the side that would really appreciate her for the legend she is.”