Labour splits emerge over puberty blockers

Sir Keir’s Labour government may have only been in power for a week, but already it is experiencing party splits. The Sunday Telegraph reported this weekend that allies of Starmer’s deputy Angela Rayner fear she is being ‘frozen out’ of the top team — and now new Health Secretary Wes Streeting is facing dissent over his puberty blocker plans.

Streeting announced last week that, following the findings of the Cass review into gender services, there would be a permanent ban placed on puberty-halting drugs used on children with gender dysphoria. The use of these meds had already been temporarily paused by the NHS after the publication of Dr Hilary’s rather damning report this year, which put forward a number of recommendations for UK gender clinics. But while Streeting’s extension of the ban has been lauded by many, not everyone is on board with the move. The director of the Good Law Project, Jolyon Maugham – who once clubbed a fox to death while wearing a kimono – claimed the plans will ‘kill trans children’ and is challenging the ban in High Court.