Kemi Badenoch calls on Wes Streeting to stop puberty blocker trial

A medical trial into puberty blockers must be stopped “before more damage is done to children”, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said.

She has written to Health Secretary Wes Streeting urging him to halt the recently-launched trial, which could see around 226 young people recruited after ethical and regulatory approval was granted.

The trial is being undertaken following a recommendation by the Cass Review into children’s gender care, which concluded that the quality of research claiming to show the benefits of such medication for youngsters with gender dysphoria was “poor”.

Mr Streeting has said the trial will “provide better evidence for how the NHS can support and treat young people with gender incongruence”.

In a written statement to Parliament on Monday, he acknowledged it is a “challenging issue, where there are understandable concerns around safety, efficacy and consent”, but noted there is “strict eligibility criteria in place – including clinical review and parental consent”.

He said: “Young people will undergo comprehensive physical and mental health checks before and during the study and will continue to receive psychosocial and other non-medical care while participating.”

But Ms Badenoch has joined other voices in opposition to the study, saying the trial is “born of the discredited, yet still seemingly entrenched, belief in some quarters that a child can be ‘born in the wrong body’ or go through the ‘wrong’ puberty, and that a normal puberty can be ‘paused’ without causing irreparable harm to children”.

In her letter to Mr Streeting, she said: “Your job is to promote the health of the nation, not indulge an ideology that has permanently damaged so many children.

“This trial continues the shameful habit of treating normal childhood challenges as illness, or that psychological conditions are signs to young people that their healthy bodies are somehow wrong and must be corrected with drugs or surgery.

“The number one rule of medicine is simple: do no harm. We call on the Government to honour that principle and stop this trial from going ahead before more damage is done to children who are too young to understand what they are doing to themselves.”

In response to the letter, Mr Streeting posted on X to say he was “surprised”, noting that the Conservative government had commissioned the Cass Review “and accepted its recommendations in full”.

He added: “I did, too, and am implementing it. I’m keen to maintain a cross-party approach on such a sensitive issue.”

Following the trial’s launch at the weekend, Baroness Hilary Cass said she was “really pleased” a team at King’s College London was undertaking it, saying they are “one of the best in the country for this kind of trial”.

She said: “My review uncovered a very weak evidence base for benefits from the use of puberty blockers for children and young people with gender dysphoria. In fact, some children had more negative than positive effects.

“However, given that there are clinicians, children and families who believe passionately in the beneficial effects, a trial was the only way forward to make sense of this.”

The youngest patients involved in the trial will typically be 10 to 11 for girls and 11 to 12 for boys, with a maximum age of consent at 15 years 11 months, researchers said.

One group will be given puberty blockers for two years, while the other will be given the drugs after a one-year delay.

Researchers expect to see the first patients available for recruitment in the new year, with results expected in around four years.

Some young people could remain on the drugs beyond the trial if deemed “clinically appropriate”, they said.

Puberty blockers are not prescribed on the NHS to children for the treatment of gender dysphoria, after a ban earlier last year was made permanent in December 2024 with the agreement of devolved governments across the UK.