Doctors are waiting to hear whether the Government will enter talks facilitated by the conciliation service Acas in a bid to end the bitter dispute over junior doctors’ pay.
Acas said it is “well prepared and ready to help” as the British Medical Association (BMA) urged ministers to get round the table to try to break the deadlock between the parties.
It comes as around 47,000 junior doctors enter the third day of strike action in England.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told reporters in Belfast he wanted to find a “reasonable compromise” with junior doctors.
He said: “We are happy to talk about pay settlements that are reasonable, that are fair, that are affordable for the taxpayer and allow us to continue delivering on our promise to halve inflation.”
But as Oli Dugmore pointed out here, their requests for a bump in pay are not unreasonable.
Discussing the issue on LBC, he said junior doctors are not asking for an “extraordinary pay rise – they’re only asking for the restoration of what they were paid in 2008”.
“That’s not an unreasonable demand”.
Taking to Twitter, brain scan doctor Rob Dineen and Dr Dean posted payslips received 22 years apart.
They showed that pay has gone up by… £1.98.
So yeah, maybe 35 per cent isn’t that unreasonable after all.
Related: Average worker would need 400 years to benefit from pensions tax cut – analysis