Resident doctors vote to continue industrial action for another six months

Resident doctors in England have voted to continue industrial action for another six months as part of their row over pay and jobs.

An overwhelming 93.4% of resident doctors - formerly known as junior doctors - voted for further strike action, the British Medical Association announced.

Dr Jack Fletcher, chairman of the BMA's resident doctors committee, said: "None of this needs to mean more strikes.

"In recent weeks, the government has shown an improved approach in tone compared with the name-calling we saw late last year.

"A deal is there to be done: a new jobs package and an offer raising pay fairly over several years can be worked out through goodwill on both sides, in the interests of patients, staff and the whole NHS."

The union has said doctors had suffered years of real-terms pay ‍erosion and that thousands more training posts were needed to break the deadlock.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has previously said that the government cannot go any further on pay and called resident doctor strikes "self-indulgent, irresponsible and dangerous".

A Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "On top of a 28.9% pay rise over the last three years, this government is continuing to work with the BMA to address the issues resident doctors face in their careers, including fast-tracking legislation to prioritise home grown medical graduates for specialty training places."

The spokesperson added that the government has been "in intensive and constructive discussions with the BMA resident doctors committee since the start of the new year to try and bring an end to the damaging cycle of strikes and avoid further unnecessary disruption for patients and NHS staff".

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"We hope that these talks result in an agreement that works for everyone, so that there is not any more strike action by resident doctors in 2026," they added.

Mr Streeting, who criticised the repeated walkouts last year over a pay dispute which started under the previous Conservative government, had said in December he would do everything he could to prevent more ​disruption in 2026.

Turnout was 52.5%, down from 55.3% in 2025. The voting figures mean that less than half of eligible BMA members (49%) voted for strike action.

This means around 33% of England's 81,000 resident doctors voted for strike action.

(c) Sky News 2026: Resident doctors vote to continue industrial action for another six months