The GP's comment doesn't seem inconceivable. Remember that terms like junior doctor or doctor in training in the UK typically refer to anyone below the level of GP or Consultant. That covers typically 6 years of academic training, followed by at least 5 years of postgraduate clinical practice. Even someone in their fifth postgraduate year, working full time, and making progress as rapidly as the system allows still has a base salary under 35K, and not everyone will progress that quickly.

So, depending on what funny business happens with counting base salaries vs. additional income and what happens with junior doctors' contracts when the current clash with the government has been resolved, a proposal like the one we're talking about really could wind up with someone several years into a career as a junior doctor falling foul of the rules.

Of course it's highly unlikely to come to that, because the NHS is already in serious trouble and would surely collapse completely without the foreign workers it employs not just as doctors but more widely. Any rules about minimum salary are inevitably going to have get-out clauses to protect essential industries from catastrophic consequences.