Christian nurses who have faced disciplinary and regulatory action for expressing beliefs about biological sex have called for urgent reform of NHS policies at a Christian Concern fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference.
The event, entitled “When Reality Meets NHS Policy,” was chaired by Shadow Equalities Minister Joy Morrissey, in her first conference fringe event since taking up the role.
The meeting heard from Bethany Hutchison, president of the Darlington Nursing Union; Jennifer Melle, an NHS nurse who recently returned to work following a ten-month suspension; and Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre.
Opening the event, Morrissey praised the nurses for the courage and personal sacrifice they had shown in challenging NHS policies and practices. She committed herself to continuing to support them and thanked Christian Concern and Chief Executive of the Christian Legal Centre, Andrea Williams, for the work on the cases.
Morrissey said the thanks came directly from Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, who, together with Claire Coutinho and Morrissey, has publicly supported the nurses.
‘This story found us in a female changing room’
Bethany told delegates that she and her colleagues had never expected to become involved in a national legal dispute.
“We did not go looking for this,” she said. “We certainly never expected to be speaking about it at a Conservative Party conference. This story found us in a female NHS staff changing room.”
Bethany works in the Day Surgery Unit at Darlington Memorial Hospital and is one of a group of nurses who raised concerns after a biologically male employee who identified as a woman was permitted to use a female staff changing room.
She said that, when 26 nurses put their concerns in writing, they were told they needed to become more inclusive and “broaden” their mindset. Managers subsequently required women who objected to sharing the changing room to use alternative facilities.
For 11 months, Bethany and several of her colleagues changed in a makeshift office opening onto a public corridor and clinical area. The nurses later discovered that the room did not comply with fire-safety standards.
“Imagine telling your daughter, sister, wife or mother that if she objects to undressing in front of a man at work, she is the one who must leave,” Bethany told the event. “That was our reality.”
With support from the Christian Legal Centre, the nurses brought legal proceedings against County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust. Following a three-week hearing in October and November 2025, an employment tribunal found that the nurses had suffered unlawful harassment and that their dignity had been violated.
Bethany described the judgment as “a victory not only for us, but for women across Britain,” adding:
“A victory for truth. A victory for safeguarding. And a victory for common sense.”
She said the dispute had grown into a wider battle over whether workers could express lawful beliefs and raise safeguarding concerns without facing professional consequences.
Some of the nurses were reported to the Nursing and Midwifery Council after speaking publicly. Hutchison said some continued to face investigation despite the tribunal judgment.
The group also formed the Darlington Nursing Union after the established nursing unions failed to represent their concerns.
“The Darlington Nursing Union was born not out of political ambition, but out of necessity,” Bethany said. “Nurses needed an organisation willing to defend their dignity, privacy and legal rights.”
Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre continue to help the nurses to establish the union.
‘Where is the guidance?’
A central theme of the event was the continuing delay in the publication of national NHS guidance following the Supreme Court’s April 2025 judgment on the meaning of sex in the Equality Act 2010.
Hutchison told delegates that she had recently met Health Minister Karin Smyth but had been given no timetable for the guidance.
“We have repeatedly been told that new NHS guidance is coming,” she said. “Yet when I recently met Health Minister Karin Smyth, we learned that there was still no timetable and no clear plan for its introduction.”
Bethany warned that policies which did not reflect the law remained in operation across the health service.
“The courts have done their job,” she concluded. “Now the NHS and our public institutions must do theirs.”
Jennifer Melle: ‘I faced losing the profession I love’
Jennifer, a Christian mother who has worked in the NHS for more than 12 years, described how she faced losing her career following an incident on a surgical ward in May 2024.
Jennifer was the most senior nurse on duty when a biologically male convicted paedophile who identified as a woman was admitted for treatment. During a clinical discussion with a doctor, Jennifer referred to the patient as “Mr”. She said the patient then lunged towards her while restrained and subjected her to racial abuse, requiring security staff to intervene.
“I was the victim of a frightening and abusive incident,” Melle told delegates. “But instead of protecting me, my employer treated me as though I were the offender.”
Jennifer was investigated, disciplined, given a written warning and reported to the Nursing and Midwifery Council as a potential risk. After her story became public in March 2025, she was suspended over an alleged data breach and faced a second NMC investigation.
She remained suspended for ten months before her employer dropped its case and allowed her to return to work. Her legal case was subsequently settled, and the NMC closed its investigations.
“Today, I can finally say that my legal case has been settled,” she said.
“And after immense public, media, legal and political pressure, the Nursing and Midwifery Council has dropped the cases against me. The investigations that could have remained hanging over me for years, and which could have ended my nursing career, have finally been closed.”
Jennifer thanked those who supported her, including Badenoch, Coutinho and DUP MP Carla Lockhart. She said that political and public support had helped to protect her when she was most vulnerable.
However, she warned that other healthcare professionals remained at risk because of a contradiction between ministerial assurances and written NHS and regulatory policies.
Jennifer said she had been told during a meeting with Women and Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson and Smyth that no nurse should be punished simply for declining to use a patient’s preferred pronouns. Existing NHS trust and NMC policies, she argued, could nevertheless leave nurses believing that doing so might constitute discrimination or misconduct.
“No professional should have to wait for a national campaign before being treated fairly,” she said.
“No nurse should have to become a front-page story before basic principles of justice are applied. And no one should be subjected to years of investigation for expressing lawful Christian beliefs.”
Jennifer called for clear national guidance protecting freedom of religion, belief and expression, together with stronger protection for whistleblowers.
“The Government has said that no nurse should be punished for refusing to use preferred pronouns,” she said. “Now those words must become clear, lawful and enforceable national policy.”
‘A return to reality’
Concluding the event, Andrea Williams, along with consultant solicitor to the Christian Legal Centre, Michael Phillips, who was also on the panel, said the cases illustrate the consequences of public policy becoming detached from biological reality, freedom of conscience and the wording of the law.
She argued that trade unions and professional regulators which should protect workers had instead left women isolated, while colleagues had often been too afraid to speak.
“I’m pleased that Bethany and Jennifer, at great personal cost, are here to tell their stories to you today with a great deal of public support,” Andrea said. “But there are many who’ve gone before them who have been crushed.”
Andrea said Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre had supported people facing workplace or legal sanctions connected with Christian beliefs, biological sex, protection of life, freedom of speech and freedom of conscience.
She called for the restoration of clarity in public policy, protections for conscience and free speech, changing room and toilet policies based on biological sex, reform of equality and diversity training, and greater accountability for professional regulators.
“Our ambition is simple,” Andrea said. “We challenge what is wrong. We articulate what is right. And we build what is better.”
She said the cases of the Darlington Nurses and Jennifer Melle posed a fundamental question about whether public authorities could compel speech or punish professionals for expressing protected beliefs.
“It starts here,” Andrea concluded.
“We need your help. Bethany and Jennifer need your help. The nation needs your help.”