The General Medical Council is reviewing its policies after barring an Australian GP from working in Oxfordshire because she had not had an English language test.

Dr Marti Watts, whose first language is English, was offered a post at the Deer Park Medical Centre, in Edington Square, Witney.

But the GMC will not register her, making it illegal for her to practise as a GP.

Doctors from Europe are allowed to work without a language test, yet GPs from other countries must prove they can speak, listen, write and read in English.

The GMC has now admitted the laws concerning foreign doctors in the UK are not sensible.

In a statement, the GMC said all foreign doctors had to "satisfy the Registrar of the GMC that they have the necessary knowledge of English".

Members of European states slip through the net because EU law does not allow the GMC to test them, as they have freedom of movement.

It said: "We are aware that testing the English of someone whose mother tongue is English, although equitable, may not be a sensible use of resources.

"That is why we are currently reviewing the mechanisms for satisfying ourselves of a doctor's language proficiency."

Deer Park Medical Centre has asked Witney MP David Cameron to help.

He said he had talked with the staff there and would question health ministers about the red tape surrounding the employment of foreign doctors.

Managers at the surgery would not comment.