Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf has been blasted for suggesting a targeted prostate cancer screening programme shows the UK is a ‘two-tier country’.
Yesterday, the government announced the expansion of a screening trial to include all Black British men between the ages of 45 and 74.
In its announcement, the Department for Health said: ‘The move recognises that Black men face a higher risk of prostate cancer and aims to build the evidence needed to find the best screening strategy and tackle long-standing inequalities.’
But Yusuf – whose mother and father both worked for decades in the NHS – saw the move as an example of preferential treatment based on race.
He wrote on X: ‘On the day the whole political establishment claims we do not live in a two tier country, they announce this.
‘Note, the NHS makes NO drugs available exclusively to white people.’
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According to Prostate Cancer UK, Black men have double the risk of getting the disease compared to men of other races.
One in four Black men will get prostate cancer in their lifetime, the charity said.
Yusuf’s comments were heavily criticised by other politicians, including those with a background in health.
Dr Zubir Ahmed, a transplant surgeon and Labour MP, replied to the Reform home affairs spokesman: ‘How can someone as thick as you aspire to hold any form of public office?
‘Please go and ask your father how medical screening works, it’s time you were educated.’
Former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron asked: ‘Are there any doctors who belong to Reform UK who can quietly tell Zia to stop being a wazzock about this stuff?’
But Yusuf later doubled down in response to Zack Polanski, who wrote that the ‘prospect of Reform in charge of our NHS is truly terrifying’.
Quoting the Green Party leader’s post, Yusuf asked if he was ‘totally fine if the NHS makes scarce treatments or screenings’ for conditions that disproportionately affect white people.
The news of the targeted trial came after the government confirmed it would not be going ahead with a national screening programme for prostate cancer.
New Health Secretary James Murray said most of the men who would be identified in such a large-scale programme would never go on to have any issues with prostate cancer – but the side effects from treatment could be serious.
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