The BMA said new health secretary James Murray had ‘made it clear he will not improve the offer already rejected' in March.

The union held a six-day strike in April after accusing the Government of ‘moving the goalposts' on the pay element of the deal at the eleventh hour.

In its latest escalation, the BMA will hold four days of industrial action from 7am,  Monday 15 June to 6.59am on Friday 19 June.

BMA resident doctors committee chair Jack Fletcher said: ‘We had hoped that a change in leadership at the Department of Health and Social Care would lead to a change in approach. Sadly we have run up against the same intransigence and vagueness we encountered under Mr Streeting.'

Murray said: ‘I was clear with the BMA that after a 33.4% pay rise for resident doctors over the last four years – the highest anywhere across the public sector – the BMA's demands for further substantial pay increases this year are unrealistic, unaffordable, and unsustainable.'

Matthew Hopkins, interim acute and ambulance network director at The NHS Alliance, said: ‘This decision to strike yet again is rash and wholly irresponsible and will leave patients paying the price. This latest round of industrial action, the 16th stoppage in the last three years, puts at risk the hard worn progress the health service has made in recent months in bringing down waiting lists and driving up productivity.

‘It's high time this dispute is brought to an end. If this deadlock cannot be broken, then surely the time has come to bring in an intermediary to arbitrate to resolve this damaging dispute once and for all.'