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Government minister says doctors don’t deserve a 30% pay rise
The British Medical Association claims doctors’ pay has fallen by as much as 30% since 2008
Doctors shouldn’t get an ‘enormous’ 30% pay rise as it would drive inflation even higher, a government minister has claimed this week.
The British Medical Association’s (BMA) annual conference in Brighton saw delegates vote to press ministers to agree to the pay increase, which they say will make up for real-term cuts to salaries since 2008.
Doctors have called for the pay rise to be implemented across the next five years, with some medics threatening to take industrial action if their demands aren’t met.
However, Chris Philp, the Minister for Technology and the Digital Economy, told LBC yesterday that while doctors must be supported, their demands for a 30% pay rise is ‘enormous’ – adding that such a pay hike would ‘feed through into higher prices’.
When asked if doctors deserve an additional 30% pay, Philp said: “No. Obviously we support our doctors but a 30% pay rise is enormous.”
He added: “Companies will have to put their prices up, in the case of the NHS we’ll have to put taxes up to fund it, and the excess money will just drive prices up even further.
“If we have these across the board pay increases that some people are calling for it will just make the current inflation challenges – which I am hoping and expecting are temporary – it’ll make them worse.”
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He added: “It will drive inflation even higher, and it will make inflation permanent as we saw during the 1970s when the wages chased up inflation – it became circular like a dog chasing its tail.
“So, I don’t think that’s the right response to the inflation challenges that we face and that applies across the entire economy.”
This comes on the back of the RMT’s nationwide rail strikes, which saw mass disruption to rail services and public transport last week.
Those who work in education are also said to be considering strike action in the wake of the protests, with the National Education Union’s Mary Bousted saying teachers have had enough of a government which ‘simply does not value them’.
Bousted said: “The case for a better deal for teachers will be set out in full this Wednesday in our letter to the Secretary of State.
“If it should fall on deaf ears, and teachers are offered a pay rise significantly below inflation, we will proceed to an indicative ballot of members. Teachers have had enough of a government which simply does not value them.”