Junior doctors in England are striking in June over their long-running dispute over pay, the British Medical Association (BMA) has announced.

Recently, talks had reopened with a view to ending the long-running dispute over pay between medics in training and the Government.

Following the July 4 election announcement last week, the BMA gave the Government “a final opportunity to make an offer and avoid strikes” but “this opportunity has not been taken up”.

BMA junior doctors committee co-chairmen Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said: “We made clear to the Government that we would strike unless discussions ended in a credible pay offer.

“For more than 18 months we have been asking Rishi Sunak to put forward proposals to restore the pay junior doctors have lost over the past 15 years – equal to more than a quarter in real terms.

“When we entered mediation with Government this month we did so under the impression that we had a functioning government that would soon be making an offer. Clearly no offer is now forthcoming. Junior doctors are fed up and out of patience.

“Even at this late stage Mr (Rishi) Sunak has the opportunity to show that he cares about the NHS and its workers. It is finally time for him to make a concrete commitment to restore doctors’ pay. If during this campaign he makes such a public commitment that is acceptable to the BMA’s junior doctors committee, then no strikes need go ahead.”

The Health Secretary challenged Labour to condemn the junior doctors’ decision to strike during the election campaign.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Victoria Atkins said: “Today should be the day the Labour Party finally condemn junior doctor strikes.

“Announcing this during an election and on Labour’s health day shows this was only ever political and not about patients or staff.”

She described the junior doctors’ decision as a “highly cynical tactic”, adding: “This Conservative Government has taken the tough decisions to keep public spending down to bear down on inflation, which is now back to normal.

“Labour would be in the hands of their union paymasters – meaning more spending and higher taxes.”

When will junior doctors strike?

The strike by junior doctors will take place from 7am on Thursday, June 27 until 7am on Tuesday, July 2.