Dr. Martin Whyte, a junior British doctor who published "offensive" antisemitic social media content, has been permitted to continue practising medicine with only a formal warning in the UK, according to the General Medical Council's minutes of the Investigative Committee, held in August.
The doctor’s publications included a tweet from October 2018, in which he joked about gassing the Jews and said he found Holocaust denial videos "pretty convincing," according to the background section included in the shared public document.
The General Medical Council (GMC) investigation committee ruled that the conduct of Dr. Whyte, a pediatrician and former executive member of the British Medical Association (BMA), was a "significant departure from the required standards" but "falls just short" of posing a risk to public protection, as addressed in the minutes, article 65. The Council's decision, which avoids suspending or striking the doctor from the medical register, has provoked outrage from activists who combat antisemitism.
Proof and defense as an antisemitism mirror
Dr. Whyte was suspended by the BMA in 2023 after his 2018 tweets were reported. The posts, according to the Committee Determination section, article 50, included anti-Semitic quotes that were analysed as case files.
On October 27, 2018, Whyte tweeted: "hahaha zeig heil hahaha gas the jews hahaha just kidding but have you seen these youtube videos about the holohoax they’re pretty convincing imo…" In addition to the case, on April 18, 2018, the doctor posted: "Me: It’s important to represent Judaism and Jewish people fairly and respectfully in art. Also me: Jew banker goblins."
During the three-day hearing, Dr. Whyte, who is based in Newcastle, stressed that he was "not antisemitic." He claimed the tweets were taken out of context. Whyte argued that the "Zeig Heil" post was the final comment in a thread satirising a prominent far-Right figure who had been criminally convicted for training a dog to perform a Nazi salute in response to the phrase.
He also claimed the "Jew banker goblins" post was a "fairly common" shorthand used to highlight hypocrisy by attributing contradictory points to the same person. According to the doctor, the controversial elements were in quotation marks to signify they were "said by someone else," as quoted in Dr. Whyte's oral evidence section of the GMC's document.
However, Dr. Whyte was "unable to recall" who he had quoted in the latter post. The committee ultimately ruled that his satirical argument did "not detract from the fact that these could be inflammatory, provocative and highly emotive to many members of the Jewish community and are likely to cause distress."
The committee concluded, in article nine of the GMC Submissions section, that Whyte's conduct in posting them was "grossly offensive."
Regulator's controversial conclusion
Despite the offensive nature of the comments, Colette Renton, representing the GMC, submitted that it was "not suggested" Dr. Whyte holds antisemitic views himself." She implied that antisemitic intention was not a factor in the case examiners' decision to issue a warning rather than refer the case to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, as explained in the Submissions.
GMC has determined, in article 57, that "With the passage of time, and without sight of the comments to which Dr Whyte was responding, the meaning of his tweets cannot be determined. The burden of proof lies with the
GMC and antisemitism are serious allegations for which cogent evidence is needed to make a
finding, although the standard of proof remains the balance of probability."
Therefore, on article 58, they concluded: "the nature of the terms used in Tweets 1 and 2, in the absence of the context in which Dr Whyte used them, the Committee could not find his comments to be either antisemitic,
or objectively antisemitic."
The ruling was immediately condemned by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA). A CAA spokesman told The Telegraph that the decision was "another spectacular failure," asking: "Is there any level of racism against Jewish people that the GMC would consider worthy of actual disciplinary action? If so, we have yet to see it." The spokesman added that antisemitism is at "record highs in our society and regulators are totally asleep at the wheel."
The decision comes amid continued pressure on the NHS to crack down on antisemitism in its workforce. The BMA confirmed to The Telegraph that Dr. Whyte's removal from all elected office within the union is permanent and that he "would not be allowed to return to represent the BMA in any elected office again."