Health service staff will be banned from displaying Palestinian flags at work if the Conservatives are returned to office at next month’s general election, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins has told the JC.
Speaking in an exclusive interview, she also promised to work with healthcare regulators to develop specific NHS policies to crack down on antisemitism, saying she was “determined to ensure that Jewish people feel as safe in our healthcare system as they should in the rest of society”.
Her announcement follows a series of JC reports suggesting that the period since the October 7 massacre has seen a surge in doctors, nurses and other NHS staff wearing Palestinian flags as badges on their uniforms or stickers on their lanyards, along with cases of overt anti-Jewish discrimination – including that of a nine-year-old boy wearing a kippah and tzitzit who was allegedly forced out of bed on to a floor at Manchester Royal Infirmary by a nurse sporting Palestinian flags while he was being treated for a blood disorder.
Atkins told the JC she deplored this incident, saying: “As soon as it was reported to me by a Jewish friend, I contacted the chief executive immediately. In fairness, she and her trust executive have sought to find out what happened, and have done all they can to reassure the family and other Jewish patients.”
Hospital workers would be banned from wearing badges like this, Health Secretary says (photo: Getty Images)
Official figures show that from October 7 to the end of March, there were 66 separate allegations of breaches by doctors of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association definition of antisemitism reported to the General Medical Council, as against none in the whole of 2022.
This, Atkins said, had helped to convince her that “antisemitism is a specific problem that needs a specific set of solutions”, which she was determined to develop – including the ban on Palestinian flags.
“I've already been in conversations with NHS England about how we can ensure that uniforms are free political and flags, and this goes across the board. Our hospitals, surgeries and other healthcare settings should not be places where individuals express their political views, but environments that enable people simply to get health care quickly and safely.
“Working with NHS England, I know they share these concerns, as do NHS trust executives — and indeed, the overwhelming majority of people who work in the NHS.”
Atkins said she had been discussing the issue with the GMC and other healthcare regulators: “I put myself in the shoes of a patient. If someone turns up at a hospital, either unwell themselves or with a sick relative a child, they just want to be looked after. They want the medical professionals to do their work and to help people feel better. We must keep returning to that principle.”
While the regulators were independent, she said “they feel this way as well and they have to ensure that the sorts of standards we all expect the National Health Service are maintained”.
Atkins said she was proud to have been a strong supporter of the Jewish community since entering Parliament in 2015: “In 2016, when I was a member of the home affairs t select committee, I cross-examined Jeremy Corbyn about his views, such as his description of Hamas as ‘friends’ - and he could not answer those questions.”
She told the JC that Labour’s handling of the candidacy of the left-wing MP Diane Abbott, who is now standing again after apparently being told she had been vetoed, shows that “mess is still there, and they do not have the clarity of principles and values that we do in the Conservative Party”.
This, she said, was down to the leadership of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak: “When we see how strongly the Prime Minister has supported not just Israel through these very difficult months, but also Jewish communities within the United Kingdom, we can be clear this comes from the very top in a way that I don't think it does in Labour.”
