Mick Hartley

It's not looking good. CEO Susie Green leaves in a hurry – and now this:

The Charity Commission has launched a statutory inquiry into the transgender charity Mermaids after identifying concerns about its management.

The regulator said the inquiry — its most serious form of investigation — was triggered by “newly identified issues” around the youth charity’s “governance and management”.

It had already announced a compliance case into Mermaids after safeguarding concerns but a statutory inquiry marks a significant ramping up of its examination of the charity. It will try to establish if there was any mismanagement or misconduct by trustees.

The commission said today that Mermaids’ response to the initial compliance case “has not provided the necessary reassurance or satisfied the commission at this stage”.

It added: “The regulator will seek to determine whether the charity’s governance is appropriate in relation to the activities the charity carries out, which involve vulnerable children and young people, as well as their families.”

Mermaids has come under intense public scrutiny and last month the chief executive, Susie Green, stood down after six years in charge.

Well yes, there have been issues:

A trustee, Dr Jacob Breslow, resigned in October after The Times revealed he had spoken at a conference hosted by an organisation that promotes services to paedophiles.

A Daily Telegraph investigation also claimed that Mermaids offered to send breast binders to children against their parents’ wishes. It said that staff on the charity’s forum agreed to send a chest-flattening device to an unidentified adult posing as a 14-year-old girl wishing to transition.

Critics accuse the charity of going beyond mere support, encouraging children to transition simply because they deviate from gender stereotypes, and when they are too young to understand the potential consequences. They argue proper scrutiny of the charity by the commission is well overdue…

Mermaids has, in the past, won the support of celebrities such as Emma Watson and Prince Harry, and been handed grants from the National Lottery and the government.

Pending the regulatory compliance case, a number of organisations have paused their relationships with Mermaids. The National Lottery Community Fund has suspended future payments and the Department for Education has removed it from its mental health and wellbeing resources for schools.

Along with Stonewall, Mermaids have been one of the main pushers of gender ideology here in the UK, poisoning young minds with nonsense about being born in the wrong body, and the delights of changing sex with the benefit of irreversible medical intervention. God only knows how many young lives they've ruined. Their success has been a national disgrace.

At last, let us hope, they're circling the drain.

Here's the Charity Commission press release.