1st October 2025

Tribunals and regulators exist to ensure due process, protect the public, and hold professionals to account. Allegations of hate speech are serious and must be robustly addressed, and it is right that our society expects regulators to act decisively when standards are breached. Scrutiny is welcomed if there are concerns about miscarriages of justice.

What is troubling, however, are selective interventions. Several political statements have been made in response to confidence in regulators’ tribunal processes concerning antisemitism, yet we have not seen any political commentary on the regulators failure to sanction health workers openly supporting atrocities in Gaza, or worse, on those who have directly participated in genocide through their involvement with the Israeli military. 

For the last two years, there has also been a relentless campaign against health workers, who have been subjected to vexatious complaints, lawfare, and unjust disciplinary hearings. These inconsistencies have created a hierarchy of discrimination, where the safety, dignity, and concerns of some communities are given far greater weight than others.

Our recent BIMA censorship survey, published in Medicine, Conflict and Survival, highlights this disparity. Muslim health professionals reported widespread fear of reprisal simply for expressing humanitarian concerns. This chilling effect undermines professional integrity and public trust, while Islamophobia continues to rise sharply. Muslim health workers, who make up to 20% of some health professional groups in the UK, must not be left unprotected or unheard.

We stand firmly against all forms of discrimination, including Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism, and antisemitism. But selective outrage weakens confidence in our systems and divides communities. All forms of hate speech, discrimination, and complicity in violence must be addressed with equal seriousness.

We continue to engage constructively with the government, raising these issues directly with the Secretary for Health and Social Care, Rt Hon Wes Streeting, earlier this month. Our call is simple: apply consistency and fairness, and protect the rights of health workers to speak out, so that every community can have confidence that justice is applied without fear or favour.