Mick Hartley

Nothing definite, but the indications are that Wes Streeting's post-Cass u-turn on trans matters was geuuine. From the Telegraph:

A ban on puberty blockers could be made permanent as the Labour party takes a harder stance on transgender issues, The Telegraph can reveal.

Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, intends to stop powerful hormone blockers being given to children via any means, subject to the outcome of a legal hearing.

Laws to ban the blockers being supplied to children by private or off-shore clinics were passed by his predecessor, Victoria Atkins, in emergency legislation ahead of the general election.

These are due to expire on Sept 3 and the new Government has to decide whether to pass a law to make it permanent.

It is understood that Labour will now seek to renew the ban with a view to making it permanent….

Helen Joyce, director of advocacy for Sex Matters, a human rights charity, said it was “an excellent sign that Labour intends to take an evidence-based approach to child gender medicine, and to prioritise child safeguarding”.

“As the Cass Review showed, there is no research to support using these life-altering drugs for gender confusion. Mr Streeting now needs to go further, and rein in the private sale of oestrogen and testosterone,” she said.

“Otherwise unregulated online clinics will continue to profit from desperate teenagers and young adults, who have been misled by trans lobbyists into thinking of these powerful hormones as a panacea.”

The NHS halted all prescriptions of puberty blockers with a view to starting a clinical trial, but there were fears about the number of children accessing the blockers via private online clinics such as Gender GP, which is based in Singapore.

The emergency legislation brought by Ms Atkins sought to put an end to that after a campaign to impose a widespread ban led by Liz Truss, the former prime minister.

After the recent Labour cabinet appointments – Annaliese Dodds, Lisa Nandy – this has to be good news.