NHS Trust director steps down after JN uncovers posts about Holocaust and ‘real Jews’

A director of an NHS Foundation Trust has “stepped down with immediate effect” from his role after Jewish News raised concerns about social media posts comparing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians with the Nazi Holocaust, and comments about “real Jews.”

Maqsood Ahmad, a non-executive director of the Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust in the north-west of England, had posted and shared a succession of inflammatory posts on Twitter, including circulating one message claiming:”The Holocaust and Nazism wasn’t just the gas chambers. It had many things that Zionism is today, to a degree.”

The post, shared by Ahmad on April 20th, continued::”They wail ‘never again’ – but never is happening again. Don’t take my word for it. The decent Jewish are even saying it.”

It then featured a quote from Daniel Blatman, a Holocaust historian, condemning the presence of far-right ministers in the current Israel coalition government.

The Pennine Care Trust’s website confirms Ahmad had also previously been “director for equality and inclusion at NHS England”, while at the Home Office he had also been head of equalities for policing.

In a further post, again uncovered by Jewish News and then subsequently deleted by Ahmad, he shared a video image of ultra-orthodox Jews burning an Israeli flag.

Ahmad, who is currently chief executive with the British Muslim Heritage Centre then wrote himself on the post, in November last year, “Respect, these are the real Jews.”

Other posts also shared by Ahmad included further Israel/Nazi comparisons, along with a claim that Labour leader Keir Starmer was controlled by “Zionists.”

After being shown Ahmad’s posts by Jewish News, Lord Mann, the government’s adviser on antisemitism, said his conduct raised “significant concerns” and said he would be looking to “take this matter further.”

Lord Mann also noted that Ahmad had held senior positions advising on equality and diversity, both within the NHS and at the Home Office.

A spokesperson for the Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust said on Tuesday:”We can confirm that Maqsood Ahmad has stepped down as a non-executive director with Pennine Care with immediate effect.”

A biography on Ahmad’s own Linkedin page reads:”Maqsood received the honour of an OBE from Her Majesty’s the Queen in December 2010, awarded the Equality and Diversity Ambassador of the year Award in 2009 by Home Office and has been selected for the NHS England Top Leaders programme designed for chief executives and potential chief executives. ”

During his time at the Home Office, Ahmad writes he was;”Responsible for developing equality and human rights policies for the police service on behalf of the Home Office, advising the Home Secretary on equality and policing areas of work including being responsible for the implementation of Stephen Lawrence recommendations arising from McPherson.”

The Pennine Care Trust provides essential mental health services for over 1.3 million people in Greater Manchester and Derbyshire. It provides both mental health and learning disability services in Bury, which has one of the most sizeable Jewish communities in the UK.

After Jewish News approached Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust on Saturday evening a spokesperson responded the following day saying:“We take this matter very seriously and would like to be clear that the views posted on personal twitter accounts do not, in any way, reflect the views of our Trust”.

We also alerted the Trust to the fact that their own website was actively promoting the @786maq Twitter platform used by their non-executive director to post and share inflammatory posts.

They confirmed that some of the posts had now been deleted.

But after Jewish News approached Ahmad for comment, Pennine Care Trust issued a new statement on Tuesday.

It read:”The views posted on personal twitter accounts do not, in any way, reflect the views of our Trust. We can confirm that Maqsood Ahmad has stepped down as a non-executive director with Pennine Care with immediate effect.”

In a further updated statement the Trust added:”As soon as we were informed about the comments, we raised them with Maqsood Ahmad and he stepped down from his role on the board with immediate effect.

“We condemn his twitter comments in the strongest possible terms. We have a zero-tolerance approach to any form of prejudice or racism and the views expressed in no way reflect the views or values of our organisation.”

In May 2021, as the last war between Israel and Hamas escalated in Gaza, in another post Ahmad wrote: “Israel is a terrorist state run by racist Zionist (sic) who believe they are a superior race to any other and unaccountable to no one.”

Last December, as anger mounted over antisemitic rants made by the US rapper Kayne West, Ahmad wrote: “Kayne West may be dangerous but not as dangerous as Zionist government of Israel…”

He claimed the mainstream media ignored covering Israel’s actions against the Palestinians “on a daily basis” while focusing on Russia adding “your hypocrisy is unbelievable.”

Ahmad worked as head of police equality policy at the Home Office between 2005-2009. His Linkedin page says he was “Responsible for developing equality and human rights policies for the police service on behalf of the Home Office.”

Between 2009-2013 he was the director for inclusion at the NHS Midlands and East Strategic Health Authority. His web page states he continues to be a director of the NHS England/Health and Social Care Partnership.

He was appointed chief executive of the British Muslim Heritage Centre in April 2019, and made  a non-executive director of the Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust in December 2021.

A spokesperson for the British Muslim Heritage Centre said:”Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

“We have spoken to the CEO and can assure you that his views are not consistent with the views of the British Muslim Heritage Centre. These are the CEO’S private twitter responses, expressed on his personal twitter account.

“Moving forward we are reviewing our social media policy for all our staff to ensure that they maintain professionalism and good judgment in their private social media activity. In addition to this we will be organising a social media training workshop for all staff.”