Health Secretary Victoria Atkins has blasted Labour for contributing to “the toxicity of the debate” on transgender healthcare.
Shadow Health Secretary West Streeting has ditched his stance on gender by admitting it was a mistake to insist all trans women are women.
The dramatic u-turn came in the wake of the Cass Review into how the NHS has treated gender-questioning kids.
Speaking in the Commons, Ms Atkins said: “In order to move forward and get on with the vital work that Dr Cass recommends we need more people to face up to the truth, no matter how uncomfortable that makes them feel.
“And so I say to (Mr Streeting), I hope he has the humility to understand that the ideology he and his colleagues espoused was part of the problem.
“He talks about the culture and the toxicity of the debate, does he understand the hurt that he caused to people when he told them to ‘just get over it’? Does he know that when he and his friends on the left spent the last decade crying culture wars when legitimate concerns were raised, an atmosphere of intimidation was created and had the impact on the workforce that he has rightly described, they were scared or worried to go into it?”
She added: “And does he now have the good grace to apologise to those who have been maligned in public life, including his own female colleagues, and for the chilling effect that this has had on clinicians, journalists and campaigners who were trying to raise the alarm?”
The Cass Review found that children had been let down by a lack of research and evidence on the use of puberty blockers and hormones, in a debate that it described as having become exceptionally toxic.
Mr Streeting called for politicians to work together “in pursuit of the healthcare of vulnerable people”.
He said: “For the sake of all of those children, young people and now adults, but particularly those being referred into gender identity services today, we have a duty to get this right. What has emerged in the Cass review is a scandal. It is a scandal that children and young people are waiting far too long, often years for care while their wellbeing deteriorates and their childhood slips away.
“It is scandalous that medical interventions have been made on the basis of shaky evidence.”
He added: “This report must provide a watershed moment for the NHS’s gender identity services. Children’s healthcare should always be led by evidence and in the best interests of children’s welfare.
“Dr Cass’s report has provided the basis on which to go forward. The report must also provide a watershed moment for the way in which our society and our politics discuss this issue.”
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins confirmed that all adult gender clinics – six of which had refused to take part in Dr Cass’s study – have agreed to “fully co-operate”.
She said: “All bar one of the adult gender clinics refused to co-operate with this vital research, this is unacceptable, to quote Dr Cass – I’d go even further, I think it is deplorable.
“It is a dereliction of their professional duty and so I’m pleased to update the house that following the publication of Dr Cass’s report, I have been informed that all seven clinical leads in adult gender services now intend to fully participate in this important work.”
Ms Atkins also pledged to work to close any loopholes which could see online providers prescribe hormones to gender-questioning children as she hit out at the “morally and medically reprehensible” practice.