Speaking on the issue, Carla Lockhart MP said:

“I am deeply concerned that children potentially as young as eleven will be prescribed puberty blockers once again, this time as part of a £10 million clinical trial. Why is this money not being used to fund a study of the many hundreds of young people who were put on puberty blockers at the now-disgraced Tavistock Clinic?

There is so much we do not know about the long-term effects of these experimental drugs, such as the damage they may do to cognitive function, bone health and fertility. No child is born in the wrong body. When faced with vulnerable children and teenagers who are experiencing such issues, we should be enabling them to navigate adolescence with sensitive psychological support, not pushing them on to drugs which most often lead down a path towards chemical castration.

There is no justification for putting children on a clinical pathway that, in 95 per cent of cases, is followed by cross-sex hormone treatment, which is often irreversible and can cause infertility. If we are truly serious about child safeguarding, we should be listening to brave detransitioners like Keira Bell, who says she wishes she had been offered more psychological support instead of being put on a medical pathway. She was given puberty blockers aged 16, was prescribed testosterone a year later, and had her breasts surgically removed aged 20. It is too late for Keira, but it is not too late for thousands more children across the UK who need protected.

The trial is once again putting children at unacceptable risk with no clear benefit. This is deeply unethical and inhumane. We must never again cause our children medical harm in the name of ideology.

I have signed Rupert Lowe MP’s letter urging the Government to halt this damaging trial, and I will continue to oppose it in every way I can, for the sake of our children.”