Wes Streeting has said he is “genuinely sorry” for the “fear and anxiety” felt by the transgender community following the ban on puberty blockers.
It comes as the Health Secretary was met with anti-privatisation and pro-trans protesters at the Unison National Healthcare Service Group Conference in Liverpool on Wednesday.
The NHS announced in March that children would no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at gender identity clinics.
In May, following the publication of the Cass Review, the Conservative government introduced a ban with emergency legislation, preventing the prescription of the medication from European or private prescribers and restricting NHS provision to within clinical trials.
The move was then made indefinite in December.
Following his speech, the Health Secretary was asked about reducing waiting times for transgender people.
Speaking of the ban, he said the decision was “solely about the clinical advice” that he was given, adding: “I did what I think any health secretary should do when they are confronted with that sort of choice, which is to seek the advice of clinicians and to ask clinical experts and leaders what we should do in that case.
“I am very conscious that for lots of people, not just in the trans community, but across the LGBT community – in fact, across wide society – there is real anxiety about the decision that I took.
“I would challenge anyone in my shoes to say, as a politician, that you would overrule clinical advice, especially when it comes to medicines that are challenged on the basis of whether they are safe or not for children.
“I know people disagree with that decision. I know it’s caused real fear and anxiety in our community, and that certainly doesn’t sit easy with me.”
Mr Streeting said clinical trials will build evidence and “take the political poison out of what should always be a considered compassionate and evidence based conversation about how we provide care and support to a vulnerable group of children and young people in our society and trans adults”.
He added: “I totally get why, having taken this particular decision so soon, why it’s caused that fear and anxiety. And I’m genuinely sorry about that.
“And I have met many, not just trans organisations, but families and children and young people who strongly disagree with this decision and are fearful as a result of those decisions.
“And that that breaks my heart, it genuinely does.
“What I hope you will see through our actions, not just our words, over the course of this Parliament, that this will be a Labour government that cuts waiting times for trans people, that improves access to services for trans people of all ages in our health services, that clamps down on hate crime and attacks against trans people, that introduces new laws and protections, including a ban on conversion therapy and a trans-inclusive ban on conversion therapy.”
During Mr Streeting’s speech, a handful of people silently held up transgender flags, along with signs saying “our NHS not for sale”.
One of the protest organisers, Pauline Brady, 40, told the PA news agency “the strength of feeling has built up over years”.
Ms Brady, a Unison steward and NHS mental health charge nurse, added: “Taking away young people’s puberty blockers for those who are wanting to transition is absolutely disgusting, and it’s something that, as a union, goes against our values.”
