Junior doctors’ strike: No 10 says there will be no talks with BMA unless doctors abandon pay demands – as it happened

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Junior doctors have had absolutely nothing" from the health secretary regarding pay negotiations, the deputy chair of the BMA Council has said. Dr Emma Runswick told BBC Breakfast:

We're not the side with the power here to start negotiations - we've been asking for literally months.

At any point, Steve Barclay could have entered negotiations with us.

We are ... working very hard to ensure those emergency services are kept safe, that is our priority, but I've also got no doubt that that cover is very fragile, so we are relying on consultants and other staff to cover the work that junior doctors usually do.

Junior doctors are a significant part of our medical workforce - up to 40 to 50% of our medical staff - and so that cover is stretched thin in places, so it could be affected by sickness, by absence for other reasons.