The British Dental Association has condemned comments from Restore Britain’s Rupert Lowe MP, who stated on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast that migrants “go to the top of the waiting list for dental treatment, which British people don’t get.”
Airing earlier this month, the podcast contained numerous inaccurate claims about access to care, and supposed preferential access afforded to migrants. While there is dedicated commissioning for a tiny minority of illegal migrants held in custody, just as there is for other prisoners, typical migrants do not get any preferential treatment when it comes to access. New arrivals are usually signposted to services but will struggle to secure a place with an NHS dentist just like UK residents.
Under the last government the BDA had to dismiss claims from both Conservative MPs and Reform UK that new arrivals were driving an ‘unquenchable demand’ for care and were fuelling the queues seen outside dental practices. [2] A failed contract and chronic underfunding have been drivers of the crisis in NHS dentistry. Indeed, 30% of dentists registered to practise in the UK qualified overseas, and this migrant workforce has contributed to keeping the struggling service viable. Internationally qualified dentists now represent more than half of all new registrants joining the workforce annually.
BDA Chair Eddie Crouch said:
“Yes, NHS dental care is in crisis, but migrants are not at the front of the queue.
“Mr Lowe’s statement is both factually incorrect and potentially dangerous rhetoric.
“As a serving MP, he should check the facts before making claims of this kind and should apologise for misleading the public.
“We have had to say this repeatedly to politicians. It wasn’t migrants that slashed the dental budget. It wasn’t’ migrants that refused to fix a broken contract fuelling the exodus from the NHS.
“The reality is migrant dentists have helped keep a service that millions depend on afloat.”
The Joe Rogan Experience is, by several metrics, the most popular podcast worldwide and in the UK. Eddie Crouch added:
“The Joe Rogan Experience reaches a huge global audience. As the professional body for dentists, when influential voices peddle myths it’s our responsibility to correct the record.”
