NHS to Ban Political Symbols on Uniforms and Mandate Anti-Racism Training for Trust Leaders

The NHS will restrict staff freedom to display political symbols on uniforms and require chairs and chief executives of all 205 health trusts in England to complete mandatory antisemitism training within the next six months. The measures follow a government-ordered report by Lord Mann that found Jewish patients and staff face routine ostracism in the service.

Lord Mann’s 60-page report, commissioned last year by Wes Streeting when he was health secretary, will be published on Thursday.

It states that antisemitism in the NHS is so rife that it threatens the service’s basis as a universal service. Some Jewish patients have decided not to seek treatment or have put off important care because of antisemitism, the report says. Two doctors, Manoj Sen and Mohammed Asif Munaf, have been struck off the medical register and banned from practising medicine in the UK because of antisemitic behaviour.

A third doctor, Rahmeh Aladwan, is due to go on trial at Bristol crown court next year on charges of inviting support for Hamas, stirring up racial hatred, and using threatening and insulting words. She is alleged to have posted “free the world from Jewish supremacy” on social media and to have stated she did not condemn Hamas or its 7 October 2023 attack on Israel but did condemn the existence of Israel.

The General Medical Council received 779 complaints of alleged antisemitism by UK doctors between October 2023 and December 2025.

It investigated 86 cases, erased Sen and Munaf from its register, advised four other doctors, warned three others, and sought undertakings from another. The council is still examining 31 additional cases. Jewish staff are the only religious group in the NHS workforce who report experiencing growing discrimination by colleagues, according to the latest staff survey.

Some Jewish staff are considering quitting the NHS because of distress from discrimination. “Jewish people have to be confident they will receive the same treatment as everyone else, at all times in all situations,” Lord Mann said. ” NHS care providers such as hospitals will become the first line of defence against racism and discrimination for patients and staff, the report states.

The mandatory training for trust chairs and chief executives will cover anti-racism including antisemitism. The moves will also target racism against black and ethnic minority staff and Islamophobia. Rebecca Gray, a director at the NHS Alliance, said the arson attack on a Hatzola ambulance station in Golders Green in April was the clearest sign yet of how growing antisemitism in society has reached health services.

Wes Streeting last year said the NHS is bearing the brunt of Britain’s return to ugly 1970s and 1980s-style racism. Prof Nicola Ranger, general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said it is absolutely essential that staff are safe at work but the reality is racism in the NHS is on the rise, as is violence, aggression and sexual harassment.

Helen Morgan, the Liberal Democrat health spokesperson, welcomed the action to stop the spread of the poison of all forms of racism in the NHS.