Junior doctors from across Oxfordshire joined a crowd of campaigners in Oxford's Bonn Square tonight to keep up the pressure against a new contract due to start coming into effect next week.

The rally was organised by the Oxfordshire branch of Keep Our NHS Public and supported by the British Medical Association, trade unions and the Green Party.

It came the day after a High Court judge ruled that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt had not acted irrationally - because he had never intended to 'impose' the controversial contract in the first place.

Local junior doctor Nadia Randazzo said: "It's now on record that Jeremy Hunt is not imposing the contract so we want to talk to the trusts and NHS stakeholders and try to get a response.

"We suspended industrial action because we have had a lot of feedback that it might not be what the public want. But if Jeremy Hunt cannot be reasoned with, we have no choice."

She thanked members of the public for their continued support, saying "morale is low" across the NHS.

Local Keep Our NHS public chair Ken Williamson said: "We are here to defend the health service, which works extremely well, from being wilfully destroyed."

Some junior doctors in Oxfordshire are likely to begin on new rotas from next month but it is likely that most will start working according to the new contract next year.