GPs’ leaders have found themselves fighting back over plans—stemming from 10 Downing Street—to force general practices to open for longer. The government said just before Christmas that it intended to impose a contract on GPs that could mean that practices that don’t comply will lose as much as £36 000 (€49 000; $72 000) a year.

The BMA leaders argue that the proposals don’t reflect what most patients want and that doctors will be too tired to provide a good service.

At a briefing just before Christmas, Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee, told journalists that the government had “effectively put a gun to our head.”

He said, “We are being bullied so that the prime minister can tick …