THOUSANDS of resident doctors began a five-day strike today after pay talks with the government broke down.

Picket lines formed across England as British Medical Association (BMA) members demanded full pay restoration, arguing that real-terms wages have fallen by about 20 per cent since 2008.

Doctors and their supporters gathered on Westminster Bridge, near the entrance to St Thomas’ Hospital in London.

Among them was retired nurse Dave Bell, a member of campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, who said: “Britain’s doctors are the backbone of our NHS.

“If you ask anyone who’s been to a hospital, they’ll tell you those staff work their socks off.

“We need to value those doctors and restore their pay.”

Jo Irwin, 72, attending St Thomas’ for a blood test before undergoing surgery, said she had “no hesitation” in backing the strike.

“Without these doctors, I would be dead,” she said.

“They should get all the money they want — and more than Keir Starmer and his cronies.”

But Health Secretary Wes Streeting condemned the strike as “reckless” and said the government would not allow the BMA to “hold the country to ransom.”

Asked why he would not raise doctors’ hourly pay from £18 to £22 as they are demanding, he defended the government’s record, saying: “That’s why resident doctors had a 28.9 per cent pay award and why this disruption is so unnecessary and irresponsible.”

In advertisements published today, the BMA highlighted the pay gap between new doctors and NHS assistants, noting that while an assistant may be on £24 an hour, a newly qualified doctor earns just £18.62.

Resident doctors are fully qualified medics in training, with up to nine years’ hospital experience or five as GPs.

BMA resident doctors committee co-chairwoman Dr Melissa Ryan said that doctors with £80,000 to £100,000 in student loans could expect to lose 9 per cent of their salary to repayments for life.

“We work long nights and unsociable hours, get flung around the country and still some of us struggle to pay rent,” she said.

Apologising for the disruption, she added: “I apologise to patients every day because the NHS isn’t giving them the service they deserve.

“We’re underdoctored and understaffed. And that’s a political choice not to fund this properly.”

University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady sent a message of solidarity to the striking doctors, saying: “Their fight is not only about pay but about respect, dignity and the future of our public services.

“As educators, we know exactly what it means to be overworked, undervalued and told to get on with it.

“For Wes Streeting to claim that this action ‘undermines the entire trade union movement’ is not only offensive, it is a disgrace.

“What really undermines our movement is a Labour government that turns its back on workers and lashes out at unions instead of listening to them.”

Meanwhile, thousands of health workers, including ambulance crews, have rejected the government’s proposed 3.6 per cent pay award for 2025-26.

The GMB said 67 per cent of its members had voted against the deal, adding that union has written to Mr Streeting seeking urgent talks.

The Royal College of Nursing is also balloting its members on the offer.