Pro-Palestinian badges should not be worn by NHS staff, UK review suggests

National Health Service (NHS) staff in Britain should be barred from wearing political badges, including pro-Palestinian badges, on their uniforms, a review into anti-Semitism recommends.

Badges proclaiming support for Palestinians, Israel, British political parties or even football teams should not be worn at work, the government’s adviser on anti-Semitism, John Mann, said in his review on Thursday.

“Why would somebody in their employer’s time, dealing with patients, want to be pushing their politics?” Mann said in an interview with Sky News. “A badge that says, ‘I support Palestine’, or a badge that says, ‘I support Israel’, I don’t want my dentist to be wearing that when they are about to drill my teeth,” he added.

“Get the political politicking out of the NHS, out of the hospital and health environment … that’s sometimes stopping people from using the NHS,” Mann said.

Health Minister James Murray said the government was accepting the “robust and practical” recommendations. “Racism and discrimination betray everything the NHS stands for, and its ability to provide safe, world-class care,” he said.

Mann laid out his recommendations after being tasked by the Labour government to investigate anti-Semitism in the NHS following the killing of two people in an attack on a synagogue in Manchester last October.

“Jewish people have to be confident that they will receive the same treatment as everyone else, at all times,” Mann said in his report.

“Jewish people have to be confident they will receive the same treatment as everyone else, at all times in all situations. If people feel, as they do, that some have to hide their identity as patients or suffer in silence as staff, then the universality of the NHS is fundamentally breached.”