Junior Dr's set to strike again

Junior doctors in England are set to strike for five days starting next month - part of a long-running dispute over pay.

The strike is set to run from 7am on 27 June to 2 July.

It means the dispute clashes with the  general election campaign with polling day on 4 July.

Talks had recently reopened with a view to ending the long-running disagreement over pay between medics in training and the government.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said it gave the government "a final opportunity to make an offer and avoid strikes" after the 4 July election was called, but "this opportunity has not been taken up".

Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairs of the British Medical Association's junior doctors committee, said: "We made clear to the government that we would strike unless discussions ended in a credible pay offer.

The government gave junior doctors in England an 8.8% pay rise last summer, with an extra 3% offered during the last round of negotiations towards the end of the year.

The BMA has rejected the 3% offer because it did not make up for a real-term pay cut of nearly a quarter for junior doctors since 2008.

Instead, the BMA is calling for full pay "restoration" to reverse real-term cuts in pay since 2008-09 alongside a new pay mechanism to prevent any future pay decreases against inflation and the cost of living.

The union also said it wanted a reformed Doctors' and Dentists' Review Body for independent and fair-pay recommendations for staff to "safeguard recruitment and retention of junior doctors".