Labour has spent years ‘trying to shut women up’ over trans debate and Wes Streeting must apologise, Health Sec blasts
LABOUR has spent the last decade “trying to shut women up” in the trans debate, the Health Secretary blasted today.
Victoria Atkins demanded her opposite number Wes Streeting apologise for his previous hardline views on gender.
She hit out after Mr Streeting admitted to The Sun that had been wrong to dismiss people who do not believe all trans women are women.
Going on the attack, Ms Atkins said: “Labour has spent the last 10 years trying to shut women up when it comes to this.
“They have been part of the ideology, the culture wars, creating an atmosphere of intimidation for anyone who has dared to question this ideology.”
She added: “Wes Streeting said we should just get over it. Where’s the explanation or apology?”
It comes after the landmark Cass Review found too many gender-questioning kids were being given controversial medication despite a lack of evidence they helped.
The report also warned the “toxicity” surrounding trans issues had cowed many critics including medics into silence.
Speaking to The Sun’s politics show Never Mind the Ballots, Mr Streeting yesterday admitted the controversial LGBTQ-rights group Stonewall – where he once worked – had got it wrong.
Asked if he stood by the organisations’ claim that “trans women are women, get over it”, he admitted “no”.
Mea culpas don't get more stark than Streeting's about turn on trans
By Harry Cole, Political Editor
AS mea culpas go you do not get much more stark than Wes Streeting’s about turn on trans on this week’s edition of Never Mind the Ballots.
When I asked him whether “leading figures” like himself were part of the decades-long problem of silencing any critic of the sweeping transgender debate, he replied: “Absolutely”.
It’s not very often you get such an honest answer from a politician.
Streeting was one of the first Labour MPs to actually say what his boss Sir Keir Starmer could not – that “men have penises, women have vaginas.”
But he has a notable track record of being a hardliner on this issue – long insisting “transwomen are women, get over it!”
In 2017 he backed a parliamentary attempt to hand young gender-questioning people “bridging hormones” when stuck in the ever growing queue for now discredited NHS gender treatments
As the Cass Report lays bare, the evidence of this sort of treatment was built on sand.
While his former employer Stonewall were not as hot on trans rights when Streeting worked there before becoming an MP, they have been at the forefront of illiberal attempts to shut down conversation.
His admission that the group “haven’t been open enough to the argument and to the debate” is something of an understatement”… but it’s a start.
However there will be some way to go to heal the wounds in the Labour Party – and wider society.
Take Labour MP Rosie Duffield for example, who was all but hounded out of Labour and branded a bigot for standing up for the rights of biological women.
As she said in response to the Cass Review: “As male leaders take applause, praise and credit for simply listening to an expert, and finally reading the room (the voters), where were the senior ‘sisters’?
“Perhaps less moral cowardice now? No apologies to those ‘investigated’, reprimanded, passed over, bullied, deselected.”
Streeting says he regrets his hardliner stance, but perhaps it is time for party chiefs and discredited campaigners to go one step further… and say sorry?
He added: “To the extent that – and I say this with some self criticism and reflection – if you’d asked me a few years ago, on this topic, I would have said trans men are men, trans women are women. Some people are trans, get over it. Let’s move on. This is all blown out of proportion.
“And now I sort of sit and reflect and think actually, there are lots of complexities.”
He went on: “I take the criticism on the chin. And at the same time, I also think that there’s been some absolutely ugly rhetoric directed towards trans people who are at the wrong end of all of statistics on hate crime, on self harm, suicide, mental health.”
This morning Labour frontbencher Louise Haigh admitted that people in the party had “felt unable to express their views”.
Dr Cass’s review found “the rationale was unclear” for prescribing controversial puberty blockers.
The leading paediatrician also said doctors should exercise extreme caution when giving children hormones of the opposite sex to help with their desire to transition.
Dr Cass was commissioned by ministers in 2020 to look into how the NHS should deal with the rapid rise in gender-questioning children
NHS treatment of kids questioning their gender is ‘scandalous’
By Martina Bet, Political Correspondent
WES Streeting has slammed the “scandalous” way children questioning their gender have been treated by the NHS.
The Shadow Health Secretary has backed a landmark new report which found teens suffered irreversible changes based on weak evidence.
Dr Hilary Cass’s four-year review published today found children have been let down by a lack of research and evidence on the use of puberty blockers and hormones.
Mr Streeting told our Political Editor Harry Cole he backs the “thorough” and “thoughtful” report.
He added: “I think she (Hilary Cass) has done a really important piece of work.
“But I think it does raise some serious concerns that are pretty scandalous actually.
“I think we have got to ask ourselves: why is it that we have seen medical interventions that have been given on the basis of very weak evidence?
“How is it that clinicians have been silenced or afraid to come forward?
“Why is it that a group of young people who are extremely vulnerable are waiting years to access treatment?”
The Labour firebrand also said he was “pretty angry” that despite the review being commissioned, NHS trusts are refusing to cooperate.
Mr Streeting went on: “I want to send a clear message to them that under a Labour government, there will be accountability and that you’re not going to get away with it.”