TORY Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has been accused of “demonising” junior doctors in a throwback to the virulent propaganda campaign unleashed against the miners by Margaret Thatcher.

Fifty thousand doctors reluctantly launched a full withdrawal of labour this morning in an unprecedented escalation of their dispute with Mr Hunt over his “dangerous” and “discriminatory” new contract.

A government source accused their union the British Medical Association (BMA) yesterday of radicalising doctors and attempting to bring down the Tory administration and the Health Secretary.