Wes Streeting still claims he is pro-trans despite literally everything he’s said in the past year
Wes Streeting has claimed that he has trans people’s backs, despite everything he has said previously. (Getty)
Health secretary Wes Streeting has vowed to improve the wellbeing and safety of trans people – a promise that flies in the face of pretty much everything he has said in recent months.
The Labour MP, who just a few months ago said he no longer believes that trans women are women, told the House of Commons that the new government wants to seek a “very different relationship” with the trans community compared with the that of the Conservatives.
“I look at the rise in hate crime statistics, I look at struggles to access healthcare, and I look at their desire just to live freely, equally and with dignity, and that is what we will work with them to deliver,” he vowed.
But Streeting then went on to say he intends to implement all recommendations made in the Cass Report, a review into the nature of trans healthcare for under-18s in England, published earlier this year.
The 32 recommendations in the report have been scrutinised by activists, several of whom argue that the proposed measures are either redundant or are actively harmful to those seeking care.
However, Streeting told fellow MPs that he believes the report’s recommendations would deliver “material improvements in the wellbeing and safety of trans people of all ages”.
He continued: “I want to reassure LGBT+ communities across the country, particularly the trans community, that this government seeks a very different relationship with that community.”
Wes Streeting doesn’t think trans women are women
Despite that claim, the health secretary has already made efforts to maintain policies implemented by the Conservative government, which have been branded as harmful to trans under-18s, including a ban on puberty blockers.
Streeting indicated earlier this month that he intends to make an emergency ban on private prescriptions for puberty blockers – physically reversible medication that halts certain unwanted aspects of puberty – permanent.
Outlining his position during a High Court hearing, as part of the Good Law Project’s legal challenge against the emergency ban, Streeting said it would be maintained and made permanent under the new Labour government.
He later defended the ban in a thread on X/Twitter, saying that he believed children’s healthcare must be led “by evidence,” while ignoring evidence that shows puberty blockers are beneficial to under-18s experiencing gender dysphoria.
Not only does Streeting’s purported desire for trans people to “live freely” involve restricting their right to access medication, it also involves segregating trans women from women’s hospital wards.
The Ilford North MP, who held on to his seat by little more than 500 votes, expressed his support for a Conservative policy that would segregate trans people from single-sex wards for no discernible reason, given that there have been no incidents involving, or complaints about, trans people in women-only wards.
“It should not be beyond the realms of possibility to have wards for women, wards for men, and suitable, safe accommodation for trans people too,” Streeting said, suggesting that he believes the overworked NHS has room to accommodate transgender patients in side rooms. This idea is similar to comments made by prime minister Keir Starmer.
Most worrying, however, is Streeting’s comment in April, when he said he no longer believe trans people’s identities are valid.
He expressed regret for stating that “trans men are men” and that “trans women are women”, adding: “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’.
“Now I sort of sit and reflect and think: ‘Actually, there are lots of complexities’.”
He did not elaborate on what those “complexities” were, instead saying he takes the vaguely defined “criticism on the chin”.
