Most Britons support healthcare workers in their wave of strikes over pay and conditions this year despite the worsening disruption, polling shows.
About two-thirds of the public said they supported striking nurses, ambulance workers and junior doctors, despite growing numbers of appointments and operations having to be cancelled, according to Ipsos polling carried out between January and June.
The figures have roughly held steady since the beginning of the year, though they dipped slightly in early spring when doctors, ambulance workers and nurses all held strikes.
Ipsos’s director of politics, Keiran Pedley, said the polling showed that “NHS staff are consistently the most supported by the public” out of all the striking workers.
He said: “Levels of support have been sustained over time despite any disruption caused. Support for NHS workers likely reflects strong public concern about the current state of the NHS and an inclination to blame the government, rather than the NHS or its staff, for problems that exist.”
Support for junior doctors has grown from 47% in January to 56% in June, while the figure for nurses has increased from 61% to 62% and support for ambulance workers has grown from 58% to 62%. In June, just 24% of the more than 1,000 respondents said they opposed the junior doctors’ strike, and 21% for ambulance workers and nurses.
Healthcare workers are striking in an effort to reverse the deep cuts to their salaries that have resulted from a decade of pay rises that have not kept up with inflation. Doctors, nurses and some other healthcare professionals have voted against the government’s offer of 5% plus a non-consolidated payment.
Junior doctors, who can have up to eight years of experience as a hospital doctor or three years in general practice, voted this month to strike from 7am on 13 July until 7am on 18 July, the longest such strike in NHS history. It is expected to result in thousands of appointments being rescheduled or cancelled.
On Tuesday it was announced that senior doctors had voted to join them for the first time in this pay dispute, with their first two-day strike in more than 50 years scheduled from 20 July. On the same day, it emerged that nursing union members had failed to vote in sufficient numbers for further strike action.
There are no available figures yet on public support for senior doctors. Ipsos polling from February found that 21% of people thought consultants were overpaid, a figure that rose to 47% when respondents were informed that senior doctors receive average salaries of £128,000.
Ipsos polling also showed that nearly half (48%) of the public said they supported teachers in their strikes in June, up from 41% in June 2022.
However, they were less supportive of some other professions. In June, just over a third (36%) supported airline workers, railway workers and border force staff taking action, while 35% supported university lecturers, 34% civil servants and 28% driving instructors.
The proportion of the public opposed to rail strikes has fallen since reaching a high of 45% in March, when RMT members went on strike after rejecting a pay deal, and now stands at 37%. Opposition to civil service workers’ strikes has fallen from 41% in June 2022 to 35% this month.
