TL;DR: Health Secretary Wes Streeting has confirmed that he supports bans on prescribing puberty blockers to trans youth issued by the NHS and the previous government. His statements led a number of Labour MPs and other figures within the party to voice their disagreement.
Labourās new Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, posted a thread on X last Sunday in an attempt to explain his support for bans on prescribing puberty blocker medication to trans young people - X
He cited the widely-criticised Cass Review, which found āthere is not enough evidenceā to know whether it is safe to prescribe puberty blockers in cases of gender dysphoria. However, despite his focus on this lack of evidence, he also made the unsupported claim that taking puberty blockers āaffects childrenās psychological and brain developmentā.
Government sources told the press that Streeting is āmindedā to make the current temporary ban on private prescribing of puberty blockers permanent. He was also expected to make a written statement to parliament on Thursday explaining his reasoning, but this statement has not yet appeared at time of writing - Guardian
What was the reaction?
Several Labour MPs took to X to criticise Streeting and express their opposition to the bans in the wake of Streetingās statement - PinkNews
Kim Johnson MP and Zarah Sultana MP both quoted Labourās manifesto commitment to āremove indignities for trans people who deserve recognition & acceptance", saying that Streetingās actions did not reflect that promise.
One MP, Josh Newbury, has since deleted a thread on the topic he posted on Sunday, in which he expressed concern about the effects of the ban on trans young peopleās mental health - X
Kate Osborne, the lesbian MP for Jarrow and Gateshead East who is currently bidding to chair the Women and Equalities Select Committee in the new parliament, highlighted in a blog post that āThe Cass review recommended caution not exclusionā - Labour Outlook
LGBT+ Labour, a campaign group within the party, published a letter to Streeting on Monday in which it expressed concerns about maintaining the ban. The statement came on the same day that another group, Pride in Labour, announced its split from LGBT+ Labour, which it accused of having been āchronically silentā on trans rights issues - Labour List
What has been banned?
Following the publication of the Cass Review in April, NHS England restricted prescriptions of puberty blockers to under-18s as treatment for gender dysphoria - QueerAF
Then, in its last act before the dissolution of parliament for the general election, the outgoing Tory government made unprecedented use of emergency powers in the Medicines Act to ban private prescriptions of puberty blockers as well - QueerAF
That last minute ban is currently being challenged in a High Court Appeal led by the Good Law Project and TransActual, who contend that former Health Secretary Victoria Atkins used the emergency powers unlawfully - Good Law Project
In the course of that appeal, court documents have shown that Atkins directly told officials not to engage with any organisations that represent trans youth and their families in preparing the ban legislation.
What does it all mean?
The NHS restrictions on puberty blockers are already taking a significant toll on the mental health of trans young people in the UK, as many parents reached out to tell us when the restrictions came into force - QueerAF
Wes Streeting says that he is ādetermined to improve the quality of, and access to, care for trans people.ā But it seems that, just like his Tory predecessor, he is more interested in listening to the flawed Cass Review and to so-called āgender criticalā campaigners than to trans youth themselves and their families.
Streeting has previously given speeches to the right-wing thinktank The Policy Exchange, which claims that āGender Identity ideologyā is threatening the NHS - BBC
Shortly before her party lost the general election, former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch boasted on X that she had worked to put people with āgender criticalā views in important government positions.
With a new government in place, we might have hoped that those harmful ideas would be less represented at the highest levels of power in this country. Unfortunately, Wes Streetingās actions as Health Minister so far do not inspire much optimism.

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