Health secretary talks of ‘new relationship’ with striking junior doctors

In markedly different tone from her predecessor, Victoria Atkins tells of her ‘respect’ for junior doctors

The health secretary, Victoria Atkins, has spoken of her “respect” for striking junior doctors in advance of fresh pay talks, in a move that highlights a markedly different tone from her predecessor, Steve Barclay.

In an interview with the Times, Atkins said she wanted to build a “new relationship with the British Medical Association” and had found the leaders of the BMA junior doctors’ committee to be “very constructive”. Previously, Barclay had claimed that the BMA had a politically “militant stance”. He had also accused NHS staff in England of planning “politically timed” industrial action.