‘Oppressive!’ Ex-Tory Minister claims ‘activist left’ took over in ‘horrifying’ same-sex NHS ward row

A former Tory Health Minister has claimed the “activist left” took over in a “horrifying” row about same-sex wards in NHS hospitals.

Jackie Doyle-Price, who lost her seat of Thurrock on July 4, served in the Health Department covering mental health, inequalities and suicide prevention.

Speaking at a fringe event at the 2024 Tory Party conference, the 55-year-old revealed an incident which shocked her about the extent to which the “activist left” got its hands on the levers of Whitehall.

She said: “The activist left has embedded itself in our Government institutions and to be frank ministers were slow to challenge them.

“One of the reasons they were slow to challenge them, speaking from experience, was because as a Minister in the Department of Health, I didn’t think there was an issue here at all.

“I thought of course we all believe in equality. As Conservatives, it is an intrinsic principle that we do believe in equality before the law, we believe in everyone having the opportunity, wherever they come from, and we believe in people being able to be their individual selves.

“It was only one day when I made the point in the Department of Health about asking how we are getting on with single-sex wards in hospitals that all of a sudden I realised that when I talk about single-sex wards, actually the whole machine of the NHS was talking about single-gender wards.

“If there’s one area that the vulnerability of people means that we need single-sex wards and we need to tackle the whole issue of discrimination based on sex as biology not gender, it is health.”

Doyle-Price added: “I took it upon myself to dig a little deeper and I was horrified. From that moment on, I got more and more engaged in this debate.

“It’s coming from a very well-intentioned set of beliefs that we would all sign up to but that activism has taken it somewhere else.

“As Conservatives going forward, we need to get back to being more outcome focused about gender, equality, inclusion and diversity.”

Ahead of the 2024 General Election, the Tory Party decided to propose allowing patients to request same-sex wards after mixed care became the “new normal”.

The practice of mixed wards had been outlawed in the NHS in 2010 but remained in place due to strains on the NHS.

Breaches totalled 4,811 in February, up from 3,789 last November.

The Independent even reported that patients were suffering sexual assaults while on mixed mental health wards.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting voiced his dismay at the situation ahead of July 4, claiming it left patients feeling “humiliated”.

He added: “Women were forced to spend the night on wards alongside male patients 44,000 times last year, 20 times as many as a decade ago.”

During her appearance at today’s fringe event, Doyle-Price also defended ex-Common Sense Minister Esther McVey over her concern about “rainbow lanyards”, claiming she felt “alienated” given the new debates around women’s rights.

However, Doyle-Price was not completely complimentary about her former Conservative colleagues.

Taking aim at former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak today, the 55-year-old said: “Discrimination against women that has become more and more embedded has now broken loose.

“We are talking about it. But we’ve been set back by some of the ways men have behaved. I’m really talking about the former Prime Minister [Rishi Sunak] actually.

“The issues about the oppression of women, what’s happening to women’s sport, about making sure male sex offenders don’t go into female prisons, those are serious issues which are very much diminished by our [former] Prime Minister standing up at the despatch box and going ‘well, at least I know what a woman is, a woman can’t have a penis’.”

The comment appears to refer to Sunak looking to take advantage of Sir Keir Starmer’s position on the issue.

Starmer, who succeeded Sunak in No10 following a landslide victory on July 4, sparked outrage when he claimed 99.9 per cent of women “of course haven’t got a penis”.

The Prime Minister’s stance on women’s rights led to a fraught relationship with Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield.

Duffield this week resigned the Labour whip with “immediate effect” but stressed the decision did not come as a result of her stance on trans issues.

GB News has approached the Department of Health for comment.