Rishi Sunak accused of personally holding up deal to end doctors’ strikes

That’s right. Let’s totally fail to consider arguments on their merits, one way or the other (and recognise that his party has been holding down doctors pay for over a decade while demanding more of them, not to mention the whole pandemic thing), and instead worry about “sending a message”.

I wonder if he has a bet riding on the outcome of this?

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Sources told the Guardian it had been made “abundantly and repeatedly” clear to the prime minister that there would be no progress on his pledge to drive down NHS waiting lists until a deal was struck.

One official said Sunak had been a “blocker” to progress during talks with both consultants and junior doctors at the end of last year because of concerns that a more generous offer would result in calls for higher pay deals across the health service, in particular for nurses.

One source suggested that Victoria Atkins, the health secretary, had been “reined in” by Downing Street, after initially indicating she was prepared to meet for further talks and had not yet made the government’s final offer.

Unions have consistently said ministers could avoid strikes by offering better pay deals and have denied being responsible for the waiting list, pointing out it went up by nearly 5m between 2010 and 2022, when there was no industrial action to blame.

If the prime minister just allowed his health secretary to make credible pay offers instead of perpetually stalling, doctors would be free to get back to bringing waiting lists down.

Others said this was a false economy as the bill for NHS staffing to cover the strikes hit £2bn in early December, and is expected to rise to £3bn, more than the sum required to settle the dispute.

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