No junior doctors working up to the legal limit on working hours will lose money under a proposed new contract, Jeremy Hunt has told MPs as he attempts to head off strike action by medics.

The Health Secretary told the Commons reforms to the junior doctor contract were "about patient care and not saving money".

Mr Hunt made his remarks in an Opposition Day debate called by Labour to throw focus on a growing row about changes to junior doctor contracts which are due to be imposed by Government.

Mr Hunt blasted the British Medical Association (BMA) for winding up its members and creating "unnecessary anger" over reforms aimed at creating a true seven day service.

As he was speaking to MPs, the Department of Health released a letter from Mr Hunt to the chairman of the Junior Doctors' Committee at the BMA, Dr Johann Malawana, outlining his "firm guarantee" that "no junior doctor will see their pay cut compared to their current contract".

Mr Hunt told MPs: "Not a single junior doctor working within the legal limit of hours will have their pay cut because this is about patient care and not saving money.

"This is something incidentally I made clear was a possible outcome of negotiations to the BMA at the beginning of September in an attempt to encourage them to return to the negotiating table.

"But rather than coming and negotiating they chose to wind up their own members and create a huge amount of unnecessary anger."

Mr Hunt told the Commons that the Government "did not and do not seek to impose a new contract".

But he added: "Rather we invited the BMA to negotiate a new contract so that we could end up with a solution that was right for doctors and right for patients.

"However, because we have just won an election and a seven day NHS was a manifesto commitment in that election we did say that having tried to negotiate this unsuccessfully for two and half years we would ask trusts to introduce new contracts if we were unable to succeed in negotiations."

Mr Hunt said "there is no reason whatsoever" for the BMA not to "come and negotiate with the Government to get the right solution".

Outlining ministers' plans, Mr Hunt said: "If we want the NHS to be there for everyone, whatever their background and whatever their circumstances, then we must be able to offer every NHS patient the promise of the same high quality care whichever day of the week they need it."

The proposed contract will reclassify doctors' normal working week to include Saturdays and up to 10pm every night of the week except Sunday.

Medics have argued they will lose out financially as evenings and Saturdays will be paid at the standard rate rather than a higher rate - insisting this amounts to pay cuts of up to 30%.

Shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander, speaking before Mr Hunt, had told MPs: "I'm worried a new Government-imposed employment contract will be unsafe for patients and unfair for doctors."

She added: "I'm worried that if the Health Secretary gets his way he will fast become the best recruiting sergeant the Australian health service has ever had."

Ms Alexander said she wants the Government to return to negations with the British Medical Association (BMA), adding: "But what the BMA needs to see and what junior doctors need to know is that the Health Secretary is genuinely willing to compromise and his performance over the last few months suggests otherwise."

SNP health spokeswoman Dr Philippa Whitford stressed the need for a "dialogue".

She said: "There is no question that we require dialogue but it must be sitting down at a table without preconditions because what happened in July and through the summer was the threat of imposing a contract instead of proper negotiation.

"That is where we should be trying to get to: that both sides negotiate in good faith across a blank sheet of paper."

Dr Sarah Wollaston, the chair of the Commons Health Select Committee, said: "What we must do is avoid a strike at all costs. A strike would be immensely damaging for patients.

"I think it would be right to take away the pre-conditions, the red lines and the threat to impose and start again."

Conservative Mike Freer (Finchley and Golders Green) said: "I suspect London's junior doctors rely more than most on premium payments. Whilst average pay across the UK may be neutral under the reforms and under the compensatory increase in basic pay, I fear this may not be true in London."

Former Liberal Democrat health minister Norman Lamb told the Commons: "I fear they may have been weasel words (from Mr Hunt). He talked about working up to the legal maximum - is he talking about working up to 48 hours? 56 hours? What is it?

"It seems to me he has given no guarantee those doctors who may still be working 60, 70 hours in a week will end up losing their pay and it is very important for the Government to be clear on that."

The Scottish Government has rejected the new junior doctor contract being proposed by Mr Hunt.

Sue Hayman, Labour MP for Workington, said that could impact on junior doctor levels in England.

She said: "My concern is that if Scotland opens its doors to junior doctors from England who feel threatened by this new contract then that is going to have serious implications for my constituency and others that are on the Scottish Borders.

"We already know... that there is a problem in keeping doctors here, stopping them moving to other countries like Australia.

"But if there is a doctor working in Carlisle at the infirmary and all he has got to do is move up to Dumfries, surely this is a lot more attractive and a lot easier than emigrating to Australia?"

Shadow health minister Andrew Gwynne told Mr Hunt his sums do not add up.

The Labour frontbencher said: "The Health Secretary said it was not his intention to cut the pay of any junior doctor. But his sums do not simply add up and everyone can see through the spin.

"Nobody with a GCSE in maths can believe no doctor will be worse off as a result of this new contract.

"What percentage of junior doctors working within the legal limits currently will the Secretary of State's statement actually apply to - 50%, less than a quarter, what is it?"

To cheers from Conservative MPs, Mr Hunt replied: "All of them."

Mr Gwynne added: "Well I suggest you then explains this - how is it if the pay envelope isn't increasing, how is it if the pay isn't being reduced, how is it that these sums add up?

"They just do not and I suggest you go back to night school and learn some basic arithmetic."

Labour's motion was defeated by 301 votes to 260, majority 41. A Conservative amendment to the motion was passed unopposed.