Badenoch’s civil service battle over gender clinic
KEMI Badenoch has told how she had to battle civil servants who supported the controversial Tavistock clinic for children.
The ex-equalities minister and Tory leadership contender said they tried to stop her speaking to former patient Keira Bell, who took legal action against the clinic’s gender identity centre.
It has now been ordered to close by the NHS after a damning review. But Mrs Badenoch said officials had assured her that the clinic was doing a good job despite whistleblowers raising serious concerns.
She said this showed the dangers of civil service ‘groupthink’ and that ministers must be brave and face down vested interests. ‘The truth is some battles have to be fought and won,’ Mrs Badenoch wrote in The Sunday Times.
On becoming equalities minister in 2020, she wanted to meet campaigners on both sides of the debate. But officials said it would be ‘inappropriate’ to speak to Miss Bell, who was given puberty-blocking drugs at 16. Mrs Badenoch overruled the advice to hear ‘harrowing’ testimony from the ex-patient.