Three hospital doctors’ groups threaten to coordinate strike action in England
The NHS’s three main groups of hospital doctors in England are threatening to coordinate strike action in a dramatic escalation of their campaign for higher pay,The British Medical Association said on Tuesday it would ballot consultants, and specialist, associate specialist and speciality (SAS) medics about joining resident doctors in taking strike action aimed at improving their earnings,“Should the ballots be successful, the government risks having all doctors working in secondary [hospital] care in England taking industrial action during the same period,” the BMA said,Consultants want better pay and shorter hours, while SAS doctors are seeking increased basic pay, improved overtime rates, more annual leave and better career opportunities,Resident – formerly junior – doctors are due to start a six-day strike next Tuesday, 7 April, just after the Easter weekend.
Their representatives are continuing to talk to the government to try to find a resolution to their long-running pay and jobs dispute, ahead of a deadline to accept ministers’ last offer.Dr Shanu Dattu and Dr Helen Neary, the co-chairs of the BMA’s consultants committee, underlined the union’s hardening of tactics, saying that “in the short term, ministers must ask themselves whether they can afford to have all hospital doctors with a mandate to take industrial action at the same time”.Coordinated action would bring havoc to the NHS, even if potential strikes by those three groups of doctors occurred one after the other rather than simultaneously.The Department of Health and Social Care responded to the BMA’s move by highlighting that consultants already typically earned £147,000 a year.“Consultants and specialist, associate specialist and specialty doctors are highly skilled and valued NHS staff.
They are some of the best paid workers in the country,” it said.“Last year consultants earned an average of £147,000, and they have just been awarded another above-inflation pay rise.Basic pay for new senior doctors has increased by about 28.5% across the last four years.These are not grounds for even considering strike action.
”The BMA’s decision to ballot consultant and SAS doctors was prompted by the government’s decision last week to give doctors in England only a 3.5% pay rise for 2026-27, which the union called “inadequate” and “a crushing blow to doctors”.That was the percentage increase recommended last week by the review body on doctors’ and dentists’ remuneration, which advises ministers on pay for those professions.The new ballots will run from 11 May until 6 July.That timescale leaves time for talks to try to avert either group walking out.
The 3.5% award was also a factor in the BMA’s resident doctors committee’s decision last week to reject what it said was the DHSC’s final offer to end their dispute, which recently entered its fourth year.It has been seeking a 26% pay rise, spread over several years.It declared its six-day strike in response to what it said was the government having “shifted the goalposts” after weeks of productive negotiations.The Guardian reported that the sudden breakdown of those negotiations was prompted by a disagreement over when resident doctors would receive all £700m of extra “progression pay” which Wes Streeting, the health secretary, had agreed to give them to help meet their pay demands.
Streeting said it should be given over the next three years but the BMA were seeking the full amount in the new NHS operational year, which starts on Wednesday.There are about 66,000 consultant doctors and 16,000 SAS doctors in the NHS in England.The BMA represents about 36,000 and 7,000 of those groups respectively.The BMA set out on Tuesday what both groups were hoping to receive.Consultants want higher pay to help mitigate what they claim is the 25% erosion in the real-terms value of their salaries since 2008-09.
They also want a shorter working week, higher pay for working out of hours and more “protected”, or non-clinical, time in order to do training, research and improve services,SAS doctors want their usual working hours to end at 7pm, with anything after that counted as “out of hours” for overtime, rather than 9pm as at present,They also want more annual leave and an increase in the number of specialist roles in NHS hospitals,The DHSC said: “We have been having constructive conversations with the consultants committee and have invited them to work with us on contract reform, so it is disappointing that the BMA has escalated in this way,“We would urge senior doctors [to] work with us to continue to rebuild our NHS together, rather than considering disruptive strike action that patients do not support.
”
Oil tumbles and stock markets soar on hopes Middle East war will end soon, as Bank of England warns of ‘substantial negative supply shock’ – business live
As the clocks ring noon in the City of London, here’s the situation.European and Asia-Pacific stock markets have rallied sharply, after Donald Trump signalled that the Iran was could end soon.The UK’s FTSE 100 share index is up 1.9% now at 10,369 points, up 192 points to a two-week high.The pan-European Stoxx 600 index is up 2%, with gains in Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid and Milan
Housebuilder Berkeley to halt buying new land and hiring staff
One of Britain’s biggest housebuilders has said it will stop buying new land and hiring new staff, as it grapples with the impact of the Iran war on the property market.The London-focused housebuilder Berkeley said it would cut costs as it warned that “geopolitical volatility” and reduced potential for interest rate cuts could weigh on the business.The FTSE 100 company said it would stop buying new land, implement a hiring freeze and employ fewer subcontractors.The group now expects to report more than £1.4bn in pre-tax profit from 2027 to 2030, compared with an earlier forecast for about £450m this year and in 2027
US tech firm Oracle cuts thousands of jobs as it steps up AI spending
Oracle is cutting thousands of jobs as the US technology company seeks to reassure investors that its bet on AI infrastructure will pay off.The $420bn firm, headquartered in Austin, Texas, started making employees redundant on Tuesday, with thousands of Oracle’s 160,000-strong workforce expected to leave.About 10,000 people have lost their jobs so far, the BBC reported, citing an unnamed employee at the company, which is chaired by Larry Ellison, the billionaire ally of Donald Trump. He is worth $189bn (£142bn) and is the world’s sixth richest person, Forbes estimates.Michael Shepherd, a senior manager at Oracle, who was not affected by the cuts, posted on the social media site LinkedIn that there had been a “significant reduction in force” at the business
I wore Meta’s smartglasses for a month – and it left me feeling like a creep
Content creators love the built-in camera; sceptics call them ‘pervert glasses’. Do we really need any more hi-tech wearables, even with a voice assistant that sounds like Judi Dench?Lately, I’ve been hearing Judi Dench’s voice in my head. She tells me tomorrow’s forecast, when to turn right, that there’s been another message in my group chat. Day or night, Dame Judi is eager to assist. When I ask the eight-time Academy Award nominee what I’m looking at, she answers: a residential area, a person in a pub, daffodils
The Spin | ‘It keeps you young’: England Over-70s bask in glory of Ashes and World Cup wins
“You could compare and contrast if you so desired,” says England Over-70s manager Chris Lowe, offering the straightest of bats to my shameless prod. “You’re the journalist, so you probably will.”It would be professional negligence not to. So let us duly look at the fate that befell Brendon McCullum’s England team over the winter, alongside that of their England Over-70s counterparts, whose itinerary bore a startling resemblance to their junior brethren.For both it began in Australia where Ben Stokes’s side succumbed to a bruising 4-1 Ashes defeat, weeks before the Over-70s swept to a 3-0 triumph in the wonderfully named Silver Ashes
Can Congress stop the ‘straight greed’ of US sports teams leaving their cities?
WWE star CM Punk called it “straight greed”. Illinois governor JB Pritzker called it a “slap in the face”. An overwhelming majority of fans say they will hold a grudge.This cacophony of disgust has been prompted by the real possibility that the Chicago Bears could relocate to Hammond, Indiana. The Bears’ owners bought a site in Arlington Heights, Illinois, for a new stadium, but negotiations over property taxes have stalled construction
Sam Konstas axed from Cricket Australia’s contract list for busy 2026-27 season
Tiger Woods says he will step away from golf and seek treatment after DUI charge
Mako Vunipola to join Leicester and link up with former England teammate Parling
Dan Hurley’s ‘head-butt’ showed Black coaches aren’t given the same grace as white coaches
A gleaming tribute to Mary Rand’s gold | Brief letters
‘The computer went bananas’: error at O’Brien yard removes horses from 2,000 Guineas