EXPOSED: HARD LEFT PLOT TO HIJACK DOCTORS’ UNION
Momentum-backing medics on BMA’s junior doctors committee demand end of union’s century-old neutrality
A HARD-LEFT plot to drag the professional body for junior doctors into party politics for the first time in its 185-year history can be exposed today.
Labour activists with links to Jeremy Corbyn’s Momentum group have taken up key roles on the British Medical Association’s junior doctors committee.
Leaked emails, obtained by the Daily Mail, reveal how they are attempting to ditch the committee’s apolitical stance.
The messages show how the left-wingers are using their positions in a bid to mobilise thousands of junior doctors to join anti-Tory NHS protests.
The BMA, which represents 160,000 doctors and medical students, has prided itself on being non-partisan since it was founded in 1832.
Last night, it tried to distance itself from what it said were the ‘personal views’ of members.
But a left- wing clique has taken control of several top jobs on its junior doctors committee including the three deputy chairmanships, which are filled by Labour supporters with links to Momentum or Mr Corbyn.
Committee members called for it to back a Labour NHS rally held last week and an NHS demonstration being organised next month by two anti-Tory groups, one of which has claimed the Government are ‘killers with blood on their hands’.
In emails seen by the Mail, committee member Dr Bala Karunakaran called on the junior doctors group to think about ‘engaging’ with the Labour rally, which was addressed by Mr Corbyn on Thursday.
He wrote: ‘ I believe as an organisation [we] need to think carefully [about] how we engage with this. I don’t think our traditional line of [the] BMA is apolitical alone will be sufficient.’
Dr Karunakaran, a registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology in Birmingham, has previously shared his support for Labour on his Facebook page.
Dr Pete Campbell, a deputy chairman of the committee, endorsed Dr Karunakaran’s proposal. The Momentum supporter, who backed Mr Corbyn’s Labour leadership campaigns, said: ‘I think we need to be positive in our support for the Labour frontbench raising these issues and campaigning … Public support now would likely reap rewards in terms of greater influence when the Labour Party takes over government after the next election.’
He called on the committee to support next Saturday’s NHS demonstration, organised by anti-Tory groups the People’s Assembly and Health Campaigns Together.
Dr Campbell added: ‘It would be great to see a strong BMA presence and support for members attending being shared on
social media … We were once accused of “being in the grip of advanced Corbynitis”, if only that was the case! Our members and society as a whole would be much better off.’
In a second email, Dr Campbell said he had attended ‘in a personal capacity’ a meeting at the union Unite’s offices to organise next Saturday’s ‘NHS Fix It Now Emergency Demonstration’.
He wrote: ‘The organisers of the demonstration are really keen to get as many junior doctors along … as possible. It would be really good if the BMA could formally show its support for the demonstration and promote it. On the point about sharing stages with political parties, in my view that is a form of lobbying, and one that we should not be scared of using.’
During the general election, the two groups behind the march made a joint online campaign video called ‘Vote NHS’. It warned: ‘If you care about the NHS, vote for anyone but the Conservatives.’
Three weeks after the election, Mr Corbyn spoke at a People’s Assembly rally, called ‘Tories Out’. The organisation was founded in 2013 with a joint letter to The Guardian signed by left- wing figures including Mr Corbyn.
Posts by the group on its Facebook page in the past month have included: ‘Tories have blood on their hands. No doubt, no room for argument, no debate, civilised or not, the Tories are killers. Let’s get them out’; ‘The Tories have blood on their hands – all of them must go now’; and ‘The whole gang need kicking out now #ToriesOut’.
Last week shadow education secretary Angela Rayner recorded a Facebook video for the People’s Assembly to promote the demonstration on February 3, saying: ‘I urge all of you to come down to London and show this Government our NHS is not for privatisation and we will protect it together.’
Health Campaign Together has close ties to Labour and Momentum. Some Constituency Labour Parties are affiliated with it, and it lists Momentum’s NHS group as a ‘national supporting organisation’.
The junior doctors committee was at the heart of strikes in 2016, the first by the profession in 40 years, over a new contract that cut weekend pay but raised basic pay.
The BMA said it would not have a formal presence at either demonstration and members would attend only in a personal capacity. A spokesman said it was ‘nonpartisan’ and ‘has called on politicians of all parties to work together to address the current crisis in the NHS’. ‘The personal views of individual members expressed over email are just that,’ he added.
Dr Karunakaran and Dr Campbell did not respond to a request for comment.