Lord Mann urged medics to spare patients from hardline political views.
He told The Telegraph: “We don’t need the politics of the Middle East in doctors or dentists surgeries. People go to the NHS for health advice and treatment full stop. The people playing hardline politics are wholly unrepresentative of their profession and their workplace.”
Earlier this month the Government accepted all Lord Mann’s recommendations.
Dr Fiona Sim, chairman of the Jewish Medical Association, said she was “deeply worried” by the motions. She said the IHRA definition was internationally accepted and did not restrict free speech, only hate speech.
“A number of my colleagues who are going to the conference are very anxious about how they will be treated and how much discomfort they may suffer,” she said.
In 2024, leaders from the Jewish medical community raised concerns about the “hostile” atmosphere at the union’s conference hours before a woman was heckled on stage for saying she was a “practising Jew”.
Dr Joanna Sutton-Klein, an A&E consultant, was jeered with repeated shouts of “shame” after she said she was Jewish.
Stuart Andrew, the shadow health secretary, said: “It is deeply concerning that doctors and consultants working in the NHS are seeking to remove measures designed to combat anti-Jewish hatred. This motion should bring shame on the BMA.”
Alex Hearn, co-director of the campaign group Labour Against Antisemitism, said: “The IHRA definition does not constrain free speech – it helps institutions identify hate speech. It specifically allows criticism of Israel, so what exactly are the BMA running scared of?”