Tom Dolphin: BMA’s new chair who’s taking on government despite bid to be Labour MP

As members vote to strike for a 29% pay rise, newly elected chair of UK's main doctors union says he is no party lackey

If things had turned out differently, Tom Dolphin would now be a Labour MP, sitting on the government's backbenches and supporting Wes Streeting, the health secretary.

Instead he is the newly elected chair of the British Medical Association, the UK's main doctors union. Its almost 55,000 members, who are resident doctors in England, gave the government a huge headache this week by voting to strike for up to six months in pursuit of a 29% pay rise, starting with a five-day walkout from 25-30 July.