Junior doctors row: New contract 'should be trialled', say MPs

A group of MPs has called on Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to pilot the use of a new NHS contract in a bid to halt a planned strike by junior doctors.

In a letter, the cross-party MPs called for an independent evaluation of the controversial contract in operation and a study of mortality rates at weekends.

But the government has dismissed the letter as "political opportunism", Hugh Pym reports.