A HIGH-PROFILE legal campaigner has grilled Wes Streeting after Labour’s move to keep the Tory emergency ban on puberty blockers.
Jolyon Maugham – who is the director of the Good Law Project – took to Twitter/X with a lengthy thread of 25 different questions for the Health Secretary after the move was confirmed.
Streeting argued on Sunday that children’s healthcare “must always be led with evidence”.
He added that the Cass Review – which “obscures key findings, misrepresents its own data, and is rife with misapplications of the scientific method” according to a recent review by the prestigious Yale University – found there is “not enough evidence about the long-term impact of puberty blockers” and that this should have been established “before they were ever prescribed”.
He added: “We don’t yet know the risks of stopping pubertal hormones at this critical life stage. That is the basis upon which I am making decisions. I am treading cautiously in this area because the safety of children must come first.”
In response, Maugham asked Streeting a list of 25 questions (below) including about the “explosion of deaths amongst those on the NHS waiting list’ since NHS England introduced a softer version of the ban, that the move means the UK now has the “most restrictive regime in the Western world” and numerous “risks” the barrister thought Streeting was ignoring.
I have some questions for @wesstreeting. 🧵 https://t.co/ZAVp6sVWI2
— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) July 14, 2024
He also asked: “Where does Hilary Cass' report recommend the ban on puberty blockers that you are implementing?”
The legal expert also asked a question of both Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner after his government controversially offered to meet author J.K. Rowling on the issue.
Maugham tweeted: “How do you justify your Government's offer to meet JK Rowling but, in a world in which your predecessor told civil servants not to consult with trans people or their organisations, not to meet them?”
