Andy Burnham is ignoring radical Islam in the NHS

Late last month, Andy Burnham welcomed Muslim community leaders to Downing Street. He reportedly told the group he was determined to build a “more positive, hopeful feeling” in Britain and that “we cannot have another decade of division like the one we’ve lived through.” But, once again, it appears Burnham has not done his homework. That’s because the delegation included a representative from the British Islamic Medical Association (BIMA), which has a long track record of campaigning against Israeli involvement in the NHS and Government efforts to combat antisemitism.

It was BIMA’s second visit to Downing Street in as many months. In September, its representatives attended a roundtable on Muslim health chaired by health minister Gillian Merron, having met former health secretary Wes Streeting a year previously. During the earlier meeting, BIMA raised concerns around what it described as “vexatious complaints against colleagues who exercise a moral duty to protest against genocide” and “inconsistent uniform policies on expressing solidarity”, following moves to ban the display of political badges.

This August, BIMA hosted a webinar with the network Global Health BDS for Palestine, during which the presenter, an unnamed hospital consultant, told attendees: “We are motivated to… get Israeli products out of the NHS.” He singled out the US tech firms Palantir, Oracle and Hewlett-Packard, as well as Teva, an Israeli drugs manufacturer which supplies one in eight packs of prescription medicine in the UK. Pharmacists and doctors on the call — many of whom appeared to work in the NHS — were encouraged to reduce their use of Teva’s medication.

The presenter displayed a chart listing commonly prescribed Teva products alongside alternatives and admitted that “I never start patients on ramipril” and “very rarely start patients on amlodipine”. Instead, to reduce his use of Teva-manufactured blood pressure medications, the consultant said he had become “sufficiently confident” using alternatives and was “now used to the doses”. His patients may well question whether he’d have made the same prescription choices on clinical grounds alone.

Attendees, the presenter suggested, should ask patients: “Would you like to switch to a version of your drugs which means that you will never get an Israeli version?” When one person present asked what doctors should do if they face disciplinary action for prescribing an alternative where their employer recommended Teva products because of their cost-effectiveness, the presenter replied: “I do this all the time.” He added that although a senior pharmacist may face pressure “to cut costs by changing prescriptions”, as a consultant it was his “right to choose”.

If these switches are taking place in NHS clinics — the presenter concluded his talk with the assertion that “the British people do not want to support Israel anymore and we want the NHS to reflect that” — then an anti-Israel boycott is already increasing the price taxpayers pay for prescriptions. BIMA refused to endorse Lord Mann’s review into antisemitism and racism in the NHS this year on the grounds that its recommendation to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism across the health service would create a “hierarchy of protection” where antisemitism would be taken more seriously than Islamophobia.

Adopting the definition is a position supported by successive governments, yet despite its opposition to the move, BIMA says the Health Department has committed to including it in the review’s implementation programme. There are also strong ties between BIMA and the Muslim Council of Britain, an organisation that has been excluded from Government engagement since 2009 owing to its failure to sanction its then deputy secretary-general for signing a declaration that urged Muslims to wage jihad.

Naomi Green, BIMA’s policy and public affairs officer and part of the delegation that met Streeting, serves as the MCB’s assistant secretary-general, while the Council’s top official Wajid Akhter was formerly vice president and a founding member of BIMA. In September, a Home Office minister told Parliament a policy of non-engagement with the MCB remained in place. But given the Government’s close ties with BIMA and Burnham’s historic relationship with the MCB, that position looks increasingly difficult to hold.

The Prime Minister’s desire to be everyone’s friend risks allowing sectarian interests to influence the policies of his government and the NHS. If he continues to turn a blind eye, patients and taxpayers will pay the price. Arthur Reynolds is a journalist, and was formerly a civil servant and Government speechwriter. ReynoldsArthur