British Medical Association investigates its own president over ‘antisemitic’ reposts

The British Medical Association, the union which effectively represents 190,000 doctors, is investigating its own president after complaints that she reposted numerous messages from antisemitic social media accounts.

The investigation against Dr Mary McCarthy, a Shropshire GP, has been announced in the wake of a meeting convened last week between the Jewish Medical Association and the medical regulatory body, the General Medical Council. It is understood that the Jewish medics expressed serious concerns about the rising level of antisemitism in the health services, made much worse and more public since the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023.

The BMA investigation, however, comes not as a result of complaints from doctors, but from Labour Against Anti-Semitism (LAAS), whose co-director, Alex Hearn, reported Dr McCarthy’s often controversial social media activism.

He told the BMA: “The function of the BMA is to represent British doctors, but instead your president appears more interested in a conflict thousands of miles away.”

She had, he said, “quoted an antisemitic account” and had also posted “someone’s description of the [Gaza] war as a ‘Holocaust’.”

Analysis of McCarthy’s Twitter/X account shows that she reposted a tweet by Susan Abulhawa (who took part in last month’s Oxford Union debate proposing the motion that Israel was an apartheid state which had committed genocide), which said: “We need teams of lawyers now to go after complicit world leaders and… corporations and ‘non-profits’ profiting from this Holocaust.”

LAAS also alleged that McCarthy had also retweeted “incendiary”posts by Sarah Wilkinson, an activist for Palestine Action.

One doctor who asked to remain anonymous told Jewish News: “The BMA is fixated on issues in Israel and Gaza instead of fulfilling its role as a UK doctors’ union concerned with UK healthcare matters.

“Hatred of Jews, often in the guise of the demonisation of the state of Israel which drives growing antisemitism, is increasingly endemic and blatantly expressed in healthcare settings and by key health stakeholders across the UK. The authorities, including the police and the General Medical Council, have been slow to act and in most cases inactive on this type of racism, and this inaction deepens inequalities against Jews in this country.

“Dr McCarthy is not only a prominent healthcare leader, but also a registered doctor and as such is caring for vulnerable patients who need to be protected from her racist ideology. We need transparency regarding numbers of concerns raised against doctors alleged to be displaying hate against Jews and how many cases have led to police/ GMC actions. The police and the GMC need to take urgent action against those doctors who pose a risk to patients and the general public. [Health Secretary] Wes Streeting has called for action against these doctors, and the government now needs proactively to drive and monitor this action”.

The BMA has brought in external investigators over the McCarthy complaints. At the weekend, Wes Streeting urged regulators to take a “zero-tolerance approach” to staff who posted racist views. He said they should be disciplined or struck off if they used the conflict in the Middle East “as a pretext to attack communities.”

In a statement, the BMA said: “We have received a complaint from LAAS, and in accordance with BMA processes the concerns raised in their letter are being investigated by our external and independent investigators. We take complaints of this nature extremely seriously.  The BMA stands firmly against all forms of discrimination and prejudice.”

Dr McCarthy has so far declined to comment.