Green Party in Britain Reviews Possible Ban on Non-Medical Circumcision

The Health Policy Working Group (HPWG) of Britain’s Green Party, led by the Jewish politician Zack Polanski, is considering a proposal that could lead the party to support a ban on circumcision performed for non-medical reasons. If advanced, the proposal is expected to affect both Jews and Muslims across Britain. According to a report in The Spectator, the working group has opened an internal consultation in which party members were asked whether parents should be allowed to consent to "an irreversible surgical procedure on a child only when it is medically necessary." The survey also asked participants to state their position on circumcision.

In 2018, Iceland became the first European country to advance legislation banning circumcision for non-medical reasons, a move that drew sharp criticism at the time from Jewish and Muslim leaders. While the initiative in Iceland received broad political support, similar proposals in other European countries have also been promoted by nationalist right-wing parties, including Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Germany and the Sweden Democrats in Sweden.

According to the report, the working group’s outreach officer contacted party members and urged them to take part in the survey, writing that "it would be a huge help in ensuring that the Green Party has an updated health policy from this autumn." The party’s autumn conference is expected to take place in September, and several other controversial proposals may also be discussed there. The British Jewish newspaper Jewish News assessed that adopting such a policy could damage the party’s support among Muslim voters, among whom it has grown in recent years. The move could also make things harder for the party in areas with large Orthodox Jewish communities, including Hackney in London, where the Greens have made political gains in recent years. A Green Party spokesperson stressed that this is not, at this stage, official party policy. "Our working groups are made up of party members working independently to develop and examine policy proposals. The only way any proposal becomes party policy is by being approved in a vote at the party conference," the spokesperson said.