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Jeremy Hunt was forced to admit his 'imposition' of new contracts on junior doctors would be closer to a 'suggestion' in many cases, in a humiliating House of Commons appearance today.

The Health Secretary admitted he wouldn't be able to force NHS Foundation Trusts to accept the terms of his contract wholesale.

Because Foundation Trusts are arms-length organisations, they have the power to negotiate pay and conditions for the staff they employ.

And gone was the bravado he displayed while vowing to impose contracts on all junior doctors back in February - as he quietly admitted no doctors would actually be forced off their current contracts.

He said the new contract would be introduced for new trainees from August, but existing staff would stay on their current contracts until they expire.

Labour's Shadow Health Secretary Heidi Alexander , who dragged Mr Hunt to the House to face the wrath of bemused MPs, questioned the motives of the Health Secretary's previous bullish behaviour.

She said: "Despite giving us all the impression back in February that he was going to railroad through a new contract, it now seems the Health Secretary is simply just making a suggestion – or, as his lawyers would say, “approving the terms of a model contract”.

She went on: "We need a very clear answer to a straightforward question - is he imposing a new contract? Yes or no?

"If he’s not, but merely suggesting a template, why did he not make this clearer beforehand?

"And why, in his oral statement of the 11 February, did he lead Parliament, the media, the public and crucially 50,000 junior doctors to believe he was announcing imposition?"

Ms Alexander suggested Mr Hunt's "misplaced bravado" had led to the first ever all-out strike of junior doctors in the history of the NHS - saying his game of brinkmanship with the British Medical Association was more to do with taking on a powerful union than it was about patient care.

She said: "it seems to me that there are two basic scenarios here. Either the Health Secretary has known all along that he doesn’t have the power to impose a new contract and so all of this is part of a cynical attempt to take on a trade union.

(Image: Getty)

"Or, he was oblivious to the fact he didn’t have the power to do this, in which case what is going on in his Department?

"Mr Speaker, this is no way to run the NHS.

"Today’s revelations call into question the motives, judgement and competence of this Health Secretary and this House, doctors and patients deserve some answers."

The Health Secretary admitted he could not force NHS Foundation Trusts to accept his contracts, saying they had the freedom to negotiate their own terms and conditions.

He said: "They can choose to use that freedom, but none of them do."