Wes Streeting says he is ‘not comfy’ with puberty blockers trial and claims ‘threatening’ trans activists have attacked his workplace 3 times

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said he is ‘not comfortable’ with a clinical trial into puberty blockers as he claimed ‘threatening’ trans activists have attacked his constituency office on three occasions.

He said the windows of his office in Ilford had been smashed and he has received ‘all sorts of threats’ from campaigners since it was launched last month.

The clinical trial is taking place for children as young as ten based on a recommendation by the Cass Review into children’s gender care.

The review concluded that the quality of research claiming to show the benefits of puberty blockers for youngsters with gender dysphoria was ‘poor’, but that proper research should be completed.

Around 226 children and young people could be recruited as part of a larger study, known as Pathways, which aims to ‘explore how puberty suppressing hormones impact the physical, social, and emotional wellbeing of young people with gender incongruence.’

Streeting made a ban on puberty blockers indefinite in December last year, but said today he is ‘trying really hard as a politician’ not to block clinical advice from experts who are ‘far more qualified than me’.

Speaking to LBC radio on Friday, the Health Secretary said the Cass Review uncovered ‘utterly shocking levels of unprofessionalism, lack of proper clinical oversight and the prescription of puberty blockers without evidence’.

He added: ‘But Hilary Cass also recommended that we do a proper study.

‘The Pathway study involves a whole range of treatments and care, including therapeutics or mental health support, but it also included a trial on this puberty blockers thing.

‘I’m not comfortable, candidly, about it.’

Mr Streeting said his concerns involve the safety of children, ensuring they receive effective and evidence-based care and that clinical advice is followed.

He added: ‘I’ve had my constituency office windows put through three times by trans activists, and received all sorts of threats. Since this trial has been announced, I’ve been called all the names under the sun online and received some pretty nasty stuff.

‘To be honest, the extreme stuff I don’t care about anyway, the political noise I kind of put to one side. I’m following clinical advice.’

In August, the Ilford North MP’s office had its windows smashed and the words ‘child killer’ daubed across its front in graffiti. 

Trans Bash Back, a ‘trans-led direct action project’, claimed responsibility for the stunt in a post on the BlueSky social media platform.

It claimed online it refuses to ‘sit and watch as trans young people have their healthcare stripped from them.’  

Asked about the cause of his discomfort about puberty blockers on LBC, Mr Streeting said: ‘Medication that delays, or indeed stops, a natural part of our human development, which is puberty, I am deeply uncomfortable with.

‘Now, the clinical advice is to go ahead with the trial. And those who advocate this medication – and lots of other countries are using medication in these cases – suggest that for trans people, this is a better course of treatment than leaving them without, and with all of the distress and harm that that can cause.’

He added: ‘We’re following that evidence. As I say, it doesn’t sit comfortably with me. I’m trying really hard as a politician not to interfere or block clinical advice by people who are, frankly, far more qualified than me.’

Some campaigners have called for a stop to the puberty blocker trial, arguing it is unlawful and could harm young people.

A letter was sent to the Government and researchers on behalf of parents and guardians of children and young adults who identify as trans or non-binary, as well as psychotherapist James Esses and Keira Bell, who began taking puberty blockers when she was 16 before later detransitioning.

They say the trial ‘fails to safeguard the rights, safety and wellbeing of its subjects, who constitute highly vulnerable children’ and that it is ‘unlawful given the limited known benefits of treatment with puberty blockers’.

The trial is also facing a potential legal challenge, after legal papers were issued to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the Research Authority, whose role is to protect the participants of medical trials.

Last month, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the trial must be stopped ‘before more damage is done to children’.

And her Shadow Equalities Minister Claire Coutinho told the Mail this week the trial was equivalent to ‘state-sanctioned chemical castration of children.’

The clinical trial is part of the wider £10.7 million Pathways project run by King’s College London, which hopes to establish ‘how the NHS can best support children and young people attending gender services’.

It will see children, some as young as 10 or 11, given puberty blockers for two years in the hope of establishing their ‘short/medium-term benefits and risks’ for those with ‘gender incongruence’.

But there has been further backlash after it emerged this week that its ‘primary outcome measure’ will be a 10-question survey, with children asked a series of questions about their emotional and physical wellbeing.

This reportedly includes being asked whether they agree with statements such as ‘it would be better not to live, than to live as my assigned sex’, and whether the children feel ‘fit and well’ or ‘sad’.

Supporters of the trial argue that trans and non-binary young people face disproportionate risks of self-harm and suicide compared to cisgender children, and that, if safe, puberty blockers could help protect their mental wellbeing. 

According to a 2024 study by The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention charity that works with LGBTQ+ young people, around 70 percent of young transgender people had considered suicide in the past year.