DOCTORS vowed yesterday to press on with a ballot for strike action despite a cynical last-ditch pay offer by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

The British Medical Association (BMA) accused Mr Hunt of “megaphone diplomacy” in the row over the imposition of new contracts that would enforce seven-day weeks and a huge pay cut for staff from next summer.

Having threatened to impose the contracts if doctors refuse to sign up, Mr Hunt made a deliberately public 11th-hour offer of an 11 per cent pay rise this week.