Lord John Mann said it will be up to the NHS to decide what counts as a political symbol.
NHS staff should not wear political badges at work or take part in political marches while wearing uniform, the head of a review into antisemitism in the health service has said.
Lord John Mann said badges professing support for Palestine or Israel should not be worn while people are at work in the health service, describing it as “a problem” in the NHS.
As the Government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, he was tasked last year with looking into antisemitism in the NHS and has made a series of recommendations, which have not yet been published but are due to be laid before Parliament on Thursday.
Ahead of the report’s publication, he said he had found it “profoundly depressing” how common it was for Jewish staff members to feel ostracised at work and for patients to feel reluctant to seek help for health issues amid concerns about encountering antisemitism.
He described one “horrific” incident when one man, who was the only Jewish employee at his NHS workplace, arrived at work to find his locker smeared with bacon fat.
Lord Mann also spoke about some women choosing not to have their babies at NHS hospitals and, among parents and the elderly, a “trend now of people not presenting when they should be to the NHS because they’re worried about what their experience will be”.
Asked about the wearing of political symbols by NHS staff, he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “Don’t do it, don’t have it.”
He added: “If we take the example of a dentist, if I’m in the dentist’s chair and the dentist’s about to drill my teeth, I don’t expect my dentist to be wearing an ‘I love Palestine’ badge, or indeed an ‘I love Israel’ badge, on their uniform.”
The peer said it will be up to the NHS to decide what counts as a political symbol.
He added: “I think the differentiation, the political badge that’s expressing a political expression, is the one that I have found with the Jewish community is a problem.”
On political demonstrations, he said: “Where there’s a political march, then the NHS imagery, the NHS branding, the NHS logo shouldn’t be used as part of that.”
While he said it is “perfectly valid as a human right” for someone to be politically active in their own time, “taking the NHS into that and using the NHS into that is, in my view, a problem”.
He added: “My recommendation to the NHS is, in their policies, they should be saying that there’s a differentiation when you’re representing the NHS – that separation of the NHS and people’s viewpoints, I think, has become a problem.”
Asked about difficulty enforcing a ban on people wearing political symbols or attending marches in uniform, he said there is a difference between religious and political symbols.
He said: “Well, what are scrubs? This is where the NHS needs to have some sophistication in its approach.”
He said he is not recommending banning the wearing of religious symbols at work.
He told Today: “I think the NHS has got the ability to have the sophistication to differentiate between people being themselves, for example, people wearing religious symbolism, wearing a crucifix, a Star of David.
“I don’t have any objection to that, and I’m not hearing that, by the way, from the Jewish community.”
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) accepted the recommendation for a national policy across the NHS on uniform.
It said the NHS is developing this and guidance will be published “in due course”.
In a separate review published in July 2025, Lord Mann and former Conservative minister Dame Penny Mordaunt warned of rising antisemitism across British society, including a “specific unaddressed issue” within the NHS.
Lord Mann’s latest review was commissioned by Government last October when Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said there was a need for a wider review into the NHS despite management training already being put in place, “because in some cases, clear cases are simply not being dealt with”.
The Government said reforms it intends to make in light of the review will “benefit everyone who experiences hatred or abuse in the health service”, not just victims of antisemitism.
DHSC said a new staff standard will set minimum expectations for how organisations must prevent, respond to and learn from incidents of racism, while mandatory anti-racism training, specifically including antisemitism, will be put in place for NHS trust chairs and chief executives within six months.
Mandatory training on equality, diversity and human rights, which is already in place for 1.5 million staff, will be updated to include “quality-assured content” on antisemitism and anti-Muslim hostility, the department added.
The Government is also committing to setting out a single set of national guidance for employers which would clearly define their responsibilities in tackling discrimination and give guidance and examples of what kinds of incidents might need to be referred to the regulator.
Health Secretary James Murray said racism and discrimination “betray everything the NHS stands for and its ability to provide safe, world-class care”.
He added: “Lord John Mann has made a series of robust and practical recommendations which we are accepting.
“I know that Jewish people – and everyone experiencing discrimination – need action, not words.
“Together with NHS England, we will waste no time in setting these recommendations in motion to build a health service that lives up to its values.”
The NHS Alliance, which represents NHS trusts, said it would work with members “to support them to implement (the recommendations) in their organisations”, while NHS Employers said the review “reveals beyond any doubt that antisemitism and others forms of racism in the NHS are rising, as they are within our wider society, and must be tackled with urgency by all of us”.
