Health secretary wrote to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, urging her to ‘take heat and ideology’ out of debate
The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has called on the Conservatives to maintain the cross-party consensus on gender identity services built before the last election in a letter to Kemi Badenoch.
Streeting wrote to opposition leader on Friday urging her to “take the heat and the ideology” out of debate amid controversy over a puberty blocker trial for children.
Both parties committed to implementing the recommendations of a report by the leading paediatrician Hilary Cass focused on gender identity services for under 18s in England, published in April 2024 when the Conservatives were in government. Cass recommended a puberty blocker trial as part of a wider research programme and supported a more “holistic” approach to care.
Badenoch and the shadow health secretary, Stuart Andrew, wrote to Streeting on 25 November, however, saying they were concerned NHS England was supporting a clinical trial involving drugs that halted natural puberty.
