British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has given doctors in the National Health Service in England 48 hours to call off a six-day strike, scheduled to start on April 7, or they will lose an offer put on the table to settle a pay dispute and, with it, funding for 1,000 extra training places.

Following two strikes at the end of 2025, talks between the government and the doctors' representative group, the British Medical Association, or BMA, had been underway since the start of the year.

The Guardian newspaper reported that last week, without putting it to its members, BMA chiefs rejected an offer worth up to 7.1 percent, including an increase in trainee posts, and called for the action after Easter. It will involve resident doctors, who are those below the consultant level. The BMA claims the offer is insufficient, as pay has not kept pace with inflation since 2008, and inflation is expected to rise again soon.

Writing in The Times newspaper, Starmer called the rejection "reckless", saying it "benefits no one", and called on BMA members to be allowed to vote on it rather than having the decision made for them.

Historic deal

"Last week, the BMA resident doctors' committee rejected a historic deal," he wrote. "They now have 48 hours to reconsider. For patients, for the NHS (National Health Service), and for the doctors they represent — they should."

He also said that 1,000 new jobs, for which applications would have opened this month, would be "gone if this deal isn't put to a vote on Thursday".

"Those measures were not chosen randomly, nor were they imposed from above … they are the result of months of collaboration with the BMA, who engaged constructively throughout."

Starmer pointed the finger of blame firmly at BMA leaders, saying negotiations had taken place on the basis that the two sides "shared those same foundational goals". "That is why walking away from this deal is the wrong decision."

Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA's resident doctors' committee, told the BBC that it too had been negotiating in good faith until "at the very last minute, the government shifted the goalposts of the pay offer".

The BMA's desired outcome is for what it calls "full pay restoration" to 2008 levels, which would be equivalent to a 26 percent pay rise. Fletcher defended the decision not to put the deal to members by saying, "We discussed this with our committee, who are elected to represent our members. Their representatives have considered this offer. We don't think it goes far enough."