Diane Abbott MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Health, responding to the news that junior doctors have voted to reject the new contract offered to them by the Government, said:

“Today is yet another sorry episode in the saga of the Government’s mishandled negotiations with junior doctors. It is disappointing that several months on, we still do not have a contract in place that junior doctors feel able to support.

“We need a government that can command the support of patients and professionals in the NHS and this Government has shown it can do neither. Waiting lists are growing, hospitals are in crisis and patient care is going backwards.

“The Tories are failing the NHS. They need to a find a resolution to this dispute as soon as possible. The Junior Doctors committee will meet tomorrow to decide how they take matters forward. Junior Doctors command the support of the British Public. It is clear that the public will have faith in its doctors, long after they have lost faith in this Tory government.”