Kemi Badenoch celebrates Dr Hilary Cass joining the House of Lords as a life peer

Former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch has celebrated Dr Hilary Cass, author of the controversial Cass Report, into the House of Lords.

The paediatrician and former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health – who is now known as Baroness Cass – was nominated for a dissolution peerage in July alongside former Conservative prime minister Theresa May and former Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman.

This week, she took her seat in the upper chamber and will sit as an independent crossbench peer.

Badenoch, who is vying to be the next leader of the Conservative party and was criticised by the LGBTQ+ over her policy decisions, congratulated Cass on her unelected peerage.

She wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Those who told the truth about the damage extreme gender ideology was causing children are some of the bravest I’ve ever met. As Equalities Minister, I did all I could to protect them but I knew my time in the role was running out.

“Getting their voices into parliament would guarantee some protection from those who want to shut them up.

“Not all my recommendations made it over the line but I am particularly delighted to see Dr. Cass elevated to the House of Lords.

“In the face of intense obstruction and hostility and no doubt at great personal cost, she produced a seminal report that has provided clarity and saved many children from making irreversible decisions that would harm their long-term health. Public service at its best”.

The 400-page Cass Report, which was published in April, made more than 30 recommendations about the way in which young trans people receive gender-affirming care in England, including to take an “holistic approach” to treatment and the need for “extreme caution” before prescribing puberty blockers to those under the age of 18.

The report controversially lead to an emergency ban on private prescriptions for puberty blockers being introduced by the Conservative government, a decision health secretary Wes Streeting announced would be made permanent just days after Labour won the general election in a landslide victory.

Following its publication it was criticised by clinicians, academics, charities and health bodies which work with trans people, with some expressing “great concern”, and others labelling it “deeply flawed” and claiming it had relied on a “selective and inconsistent use of evidence”.

The British Medical Association, a trade union which represents more than 190,000 doctors, voted to “publicly critique” the report and expressed concern about the banning of puberty blockers.