It was in a stuffy room in the House of Lords in 2019 when the power of the trans lobby hit me for the first time. Campaigners Kellie-Jay and Venice Allan had pulled together lawyers, journalists, politicians, and NHS whistle-blowers to talk about what was yesterday finally acknowledged by Health Secretary Wes Streeting as a medical scandal: the prescription of off-label puberty-blocking drugs to some of Britain’s most vulnerable children. The feeling in that seminal meeting was one of possibilities, but also of fear.

Invitations were sent to all MPs and peers, yet only Lord Moonie, Tanni Grey-Thompson, and David TC Davies attended. Labour’s general secretary Jennie Formby warned Moonie his membership was at risk if he chaired the meeting. Back then, gender-critical beliefs weren’t legally protected, and campaigners raising safeguarding concerns were routinely dismissed as fascists or as in the pay of evangelical Christians. But the evidence, which was later compiled by Dr Hilary Cass in her landmark report, was always there.

Puberty blockers, such as Lupron, were developed for end-stage prostate cancer and are used to chemically castrate sex offenders. Side effects include bone density loss, impacted fertility and lowered IQ. Despite this, they were widely prescribed to children off-label and without proper scrutiny.

Yet Streeting, once a Stonewall stalwart and member of a Facebook group targeting suspected Terfs in Labour, was previously reluctant to address such evidence. Thankfully, he has now broken away from the partisan briefings of lobby groups. Following in the work of his Tory predecessor Sajid Javid who commissioned the Cass Review, Streeting has done what any responsible politician should; he put the best interests of children ahead of his own career. Trans activists can no longer pretend that caring about children’s health is a part of some Tory culture war plot.