NHS nurse of 42 years faced losing her honorary Queen’s Nurse title after being reported for gender-critical posts on X

Max Thompson

8 April 2026

Karen Webb, an NHS specialist nurse with 42 years of service working with older people, faced losing her honorary Queen’s Nurse title after being reported for gender-critical, sex-realist posts on X.

One day, Karen attended a team meeting. During the exchange of pleasantries before proceedings began, she commented in the chat that she was pleased with the Olympic Committee’s decision to ban men from women’s sporting categories.

A few minutes later, the Head of Equality and Inclusion at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust privately messaged her, informing Karen that she had “upset a lot of people.” The following day, she received a call from the same individual stating that they needed to discuss her “attitude” towards transgender individuals.

Three months later, Karen was called to a meeting with senior figures within the Trust and was questioned about her views on trans people, as well as her ability to provide them with compassionate care.

After believing the matter had been resolved, Karen received notice from the Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing (QICN) that a complaint had been made about her alleged “transphobia” and “bigotry,” and that she must delete all gender-critical posts on X. This caused Karen considerable and unjust distress.

At that point, fearing further consequences, Karen reached out to the Free Speech Union.

The Free Speech Union wrote to QICN on Karen’s behalf, putting them on notice of her legally protected right to hold and express gender-critical beliefs under the Equality Act 2010, and making clear that she could not lawfully be discriminated against or harassed for doing so. Subsequently, QICN dropped the investigation and issued an apology, stating:

“Please accept my apologies for the distress caused by the allegations made against you and the actions I initiated. I agree there is no case to answer, you have not done anything wrong, and you clearly care about all of your patients and do not discriminate in any way.”

A subject access request (SAR) later revealed the identity of the colleague who had made the complaint. It also showed that this individual had disclosed information from Karen’s confidential internal investigation, which had already been closed without any disciplinary action. It is clear that this was done with the aim of damaging Karen’s professional reputation and jeopardising the recognition she had earned over many years of service.

The NHS Trust’s grievance investigation found that the information discussed during the meeting was something Karen could reasonably have expected to remain private and confidential, and that some of it had been wrongly shared with QICN. The Trust upheld her grievance, confirming there had been a breach of confidentiality.

The Trust stated that “appropriate action will be taken so that lessons are learned from this breach to ensure this does not happen again.”

Although the Free Speech Union ultimately prevented QICN from removing Karen’s honorary title, which she had worked extremely hard to achieve, and from any disciplinary action being taken by her employer, Karen nonetheless feels that this experience has cast a stain over her long nursing career as she retires.

We were proud to support Karen throughout this deeply challenging time. At the Free Speech Union, over 40 per cent of the cases we handle involve individuals who have been penalised for holding gender-critical beliefs – beliefs which are protected under the Equality Act 2010.

You can watch Karen tell her story here.