Kemi Badenoch and the Conservative Party have warned that healthcare staff who affirm “the basic truth of biological sex” remain at risk of sanction from bodies like the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
The party has long been supportive of Jennifer Melle, the Christian nurse who was suspended after referring to a female-identifying convicted paedophile with male pronouns. She had also been accused of a “data breach” for making her story public.
After a months-long ordeal Melle’s employer dropped the disciplinary action against her and reinstated her. However, Melle has yet to be cleared by the NMC, which has indicated that she may be a “risk to the public” due to her supposedly “misgendering” a patient.
Melle recently took part in a roundtable meeting with MPs and the Darlington Nurses, who have also faced a lengthy legal battle due to their own brush with trans ideology in the NHS. They finally won their fight for single-sex changing rooms in January.
Following the meeting, Melle said, "Meeting with Kemi Badenoch was encouraging as the Government needs to finally listen to what nurses on the ground are facing. No nurse should ever be forced to use compelled pronouns or punished for holding respectful, lawful beliefs about sex and gender. Yet I have been reported to the Nursing and Midwifery Council simply for staying true to my conscience.
“This situation is unsustainable. We urgently need clear national action to protect nurses from ideological pressure in the workplace. No healthcare professional should fear losing their career for declining to use preferred gender identity terms. What has happened to me must not happen to anyone else.”
For her part, Badenoch said that nurses like Melle and those in Darlington had been victims of a “state-sponsored witch-hunt”, adding that it was a “disgrace” that the NMC was still investigating Melle.
“If this kind of nonsense is allowed to stand, it won’t be long until there’s another Jennifer Melle. More good nurses will be dragged through the same ordeal for stating simple facts. More professionals silenced for doing their job properly," she said.
She added, “You should not lose your livelihood for believing in biology. And patients should never be put at risk because politicians are too weak to confront a fashionable lie.”
