BAME doctors, which include a large proportion of the international medical graduates, make up over 20% of NHS doctors. BAME NHS staff have for decades they have suffered discrimination in various domains such as at work, in pay and recruitment. This extends to leadership which has been demonstrated to not be representative of the workforce with significant underrepresentation from BAME doctors, despite NHS efforts. The study focussed specifically on BAME doctors, who were of consultant-grade (including GPs) from all over England. This qualitative study used Braun and Clarke’s Thematic Analysis to analyse the 15 interview transcripts from the semi-structured interviews. The themes which were generated from the thematic analysis include: ‘Steps to Leadership’, ‘Reaching the Role’, ‘Awareness and Reform’, ‘Mentoring and Networking’, ‘Intersectional Issues and Discrimination’ and ‘Shifting from the Status Quo’. The findings have demonstrated the difficulty in identification of the barriers and facilitators to BAME doctors pursuing leadership. The study has identified the importance of intersectionality, how different layers of BAME individual’s identity can be subject to discrimination which can present a barrier such as religion and race. Additionally, unconscious bias with nepotism, cronyism and favouritism present a barrier. The facilitators are rooted in tackling the barriers, increased cultural competency, promoting equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) as well as mentoring and networking. The complexity of the barriers and facilitators centre around discrimination does not tend to be overt and explicit, but covert and unconscious as a product of broader societal influences. The concepts of elitism and identity of doctors, namely ‘white’ doctors, have played an instrumental role in shaping the NHS’s leadership since its inception however its presence still exists.