DOCTORS in Suffolk have backed calls for Andrew Lansley to resign, saying they have “no confidence” in the health secretary.

Medics went head to head with Mr Lansley last week, over the government’s controversial pension reforms.

For the first time in around 40 years, members of the British Medical Association took industrial action, voicing their anger at proposals.

The BMA accused Mr Lansley of “breaching doctors’ trust” by tearing up the pension deal which was only agreed four years ago.

Delegates at the BMA’s annual conference in Bournemouth yesterday agreed on a motion calling for Mr Lansley’s resignation.

Delegates at the conference voted on the motion “This meeting has no confidence in Andrew Lansley, the Secretary of State for Health, and calls for him to resign”.

The motion won by a slight majority, with 158 delegates voting in favour and 124 against.

Dr Janet Massey, the BMA’s Suffolk secretary, told the Star her biggest concern was Mr Lansley is not listening.

“If we have no confidence in Mr Lansley then who would we have instead,” she said. “Could it in fact be somebody less likely to listen?

“Our biggest concern is he is not listening.

“The general feeling at he conference was that we have been let down by Mr Lansley.”

Dr Dan Poulter, Central Suffolk and North Ipswich MP, resigned from the BMA after it announced plans for its first strike since 1975.

He said: “My view is the BMA should stop playing politics and focus on what doctors should be about, which is looking after patients.

“I resigned from the BMA over their decision to strike because I felt they were putting cash before care.

“Whilst I enjoy a very good relationship with the BMA in Suffolk and together we’ve achieved some good things, I’m afraid at a national level the BMA are increasingly becoming discredited and remote from the views of many doctors.

“This is not what the BMA is about – it’s discouraging for the medical profession.

“They won’t have many members left if they continue to behave like this.”