Junior Doctors in Cumbria have voted to take strike action as they campaign for an above inflation pay rise.

Junior doctors who are members of the British Medical Association (BMA), which represents around two-thirds of the workforce, are now likely to take a 72-hour strike across the country as soon as early March.

The union has said that junior doctors have faced ‘real-term’ pay cuts of over 28 per cent since 2008 and that the current pay rise of 2 per cent offered by the government is ‘insulting’ and is adding to the ‘crisis’ in the NHS.

BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said: “This vote shows, without a shadow of a doubt, the strength of feeling among most of England’s junior doctors.

We are frustrated, in despair and angry and we have voted in our thousands to say, ‘in the name of our profession, our patients, and our NHS, doctors won’t take it anymore.’

“The Government has only itself to blame, standing by in silent indifference as our members are forced to take this difficult decision.

The government recently voted through the ‘minimum service level bill’ which would make it more difficult for health workers to take strike action in the future.

Junior doctors are both those who have recently graduated from medical school through to those with many years' experience on the front line.

The last time they went on strike was in 2016 over a new contract that had been introduced

Carlisle MP, John Stevenson has called on junior doctors and the government to enter into negotiations ‘in the interest of everybody’.

“My own view is that I think strikes at the end of the day achieve nothing, for the people on strike or the organisation, business or government department affected by it,” said Mr Stevenson.

“Most importantly of all, patients and consumers will be adversely affected in a negative way, which I do not think is a good thing.

Junior doctors are an important and unique part of a health service, so I would encourage a negotiated settlement because that is in the interest of everybody.”

New elected Labour candidate for Carlisle, Julie Minns criticised the government and called on them “to get round the table, negotiate and reach a fair agreement with junior doctors.”

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The Department of Health and Social Care said that they have offered an 8.2 per cent pay rise over four years and that they had also increased the rates for night shifts and for the most experienced staff.