A junior doctor has quit his post live on television.

Dr Ben White announced his resignation on Good Morning Britain - announcing plans to focus on the legal campaign to fight the government's proposed new contract.

"I've taken the decision... that I'm resigning as a training doctor to focus on a legal campaign," White told hosts Susanna Reid and Piers Morgan.

"So legal proceedings to fight the contract, basically to fight on behalf of patients and the future of the NHS.

"I think we feel like we've been backed into a corner really, and there's not a lot of sense coming out from the government's side of things at the moment."

White added that a recent meeting with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was not "practically productive".

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Junior doctor Dr Ben White quits his post on Good Morning Britainpinterest
ITV/Good Morning Britain

"I sat with a colleague and we spoke to him for about an hour at his office at the Department of Health," he explained. "I felt we made a lot of points, I think, hopefully, very passionately and I don't think they were listened to."

White had previously posted a strongly-worded open letter to Hunt on Twitter, in which he urged the Health Secretary to "stop treating [the junior doctors] like babies" and to "apologise to the public" for allegedly providing "facts and figures" which were "deliberately misleading".

Edwina Currie - former Heath Minister - also appeared on the show and responded to White's announcement.

"Dr Ben White has clearly decided that he wants a career as a trade union official and I wish him well with that," she said. "It's got nothing to do with the way that the NHS needs our doctors."

ITV's Good Morning Britain airs weekdays 6am-8.30am.