Resident Doctors Are "Not Asking For Enough", Says Train Drivers' Union Leader
BMA resident doctors committee co-chair Dr Melissa Ryan at the picket line outside St Thomas' Hospital in London, 25 July 2025 (Credit: Tayfun Salci/ZUMA Press Wire/Alamy Live News)
3 min read
Exclusive: The leader of train drivers' union Aslef, Mick Whelan, has declared that striking resident doctors are "not asking for enough" in their pay dispute – and that they should earn more than his members.
Resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, have been offered a 5.4 per cent average pay rise for 2025-26, following a 22 per cent pay increase over the previous two years.
The British Medical Association (BMA) doctors’ union is demanding a 29 per cent rise – instead of 5.4 per cent – to restore pay to 2008 levels in real terms.
“They're not asking for enough,” said the general secretary of Aslef and chair of Labour Unions, the group bringing together all the unions affiliated to the Labour Party.
A five-day strike of resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, ended in England on Wednesday. The BMA has vowed to take strike action until it achieves “full pay restoration”, but Health Secretary Wes Streeing has ruled out further pay rises.
“What they haven't asked for is all the money they’re owed for that pay restoration,” Whelan told PoliticsHome.
“My people earn more than doctors. I'm not going to say my people should learn less – but I do believe that doctors should earn more.
“The idea we’ve started this race to the bottom – we’ve got no respect for vocations anymore.
“We’ve got a crisis in traditional vocational areas, where some of the cleverest people in the country give their lives to either go into the health service or go to teach children and teenagers, and then we don't respect the skillsets they have. They would be far better off going into business.”
For a 40-hour week, the basic pay of resident doctors on the new rates will see them earn between £38,831 and £73,992 a year depending on their experience. The government says it expects the average full-time basic pay of a resident doctor to reach about £54,300 in 2025-26.
The average salary of a train driver was estimated to be about £69,000 in 2024-25.
Public support for doctor strikes has fallen recently. A YouGov poll in July showed 52 per cent of people in the UK “somewhat” or “strongly” oppose the strikes, while 34 per cent back them. The level of support has dropped five points since YouGov last asked the question in May.
Asked whether he could see why there is less public support for the resident doctor strikes this year, Whelan replied: “No, I don’t understand it at all. Post-Covid, we went through a summer of solidarity where every worker in the country has seen that there was a dignity in all work.”
Streeting has said the BMA “will lose a war with this government” and the NHS is ready to endure a series of strikes. “We can’t fix everything for everyone everywhere all at once,” the Health Secretary said.
