Wes Streeting said he would ‘haul in’ the leadership of the General Medical Council to demand an explanation for the failings
July 16, 2025 09:58
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has condemned the General Medical Council (GMC), the UK’s medical regulator, for “failing publicly and abysmally” on the issue of antisemitism within the NHS.
Speaking at a conference about the topic hosted by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on antisemitism, said he was aware of “cases of medics who’ve said things that would make me feel uncomfortable [to be treated by them] and even unsafe being treated by them and I am not Jewish”.
He insisted that the GMC “should be taking [these cases] seriously” and “taking all steps necessary to keep patients safe,” adding: “I do not see the evidence that this is the case.”
And he pledged to “haul in” the watchdog’s chief executive and chair to ask why they had “failed publicly and abysmally in their responsibility to protect Jewish staff and Jewish patients”.
"I gather there are excuses that the legal bar isn’t in the right place,” he went on. “But no one’s been knocking at my door from the regulators to tell me that the regulation is in the wrong place.
"So forgive me if these sound like miserable excuses from the regulator, and I just I cannot understand how there have been so many high-profile cases where the GMC doesn’t take action.
“I think it is a shameful and sorry state of affairs that GMC need to account for. This goes for other regulators too.
“I’m frankly sick and tired as the person who has a responsibility to the public, as a democratically elected representative of the people, of being told by the people who are charged with regulating a life and death service, that it’s all too complicated and all too difficult,” he said.
Streeting also emphasised that he is “not interested in silencing criticism of this government, criticism of the Israeli government or any other government” or “silencing the political views of NHS staff”, but urged medics to “show the same professional standards in the workplace that I would expect of them” and “think really carefully about whether their words and their actions would make their patients feel more safe or less safe”.
It comes after the Board of Deputies released the first report of its new Commission on Antisemitism, co-chaired by former Tory MP Dame Penny Mordaunt and the ex Labour MP, now the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, Lord Mann.
The report focuses on practical steps to combat antisemitism across UK society, including the implementation of mandatory antisemitism awareness training in all NHS trusts.
Mann also told the JC, at a press conference releasing the findings on Tuesday, that he would be meeting NHS leaders later that day and guaranteed that there would be a ban on “political badges” in the health service implemented imminently.
He specifically cited the example of NHS staff, including nurses and doctors, wearing political badges relating to the Israel-Palestine conflict, including pins of the Palestinian flag.
Commenting on the report at the APPG conference, Streeting said it was “pretty sobering reading”, adding: “It concludes that antisemitism has crept into our country’s civil society in a way that hasn’t happened before, including our National Health Service.
“When the Board of Deputies identifies a specific, unaddressed issue of antisemitism in the NHS, I take that finding with the utmost seriousness.”
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