co-leaders & green party candidates split on cass – the evidence

Interviewed by Nick Campbell  on BBC5 radio on 18^th June and in response to the question: “Do you accept the report as a valid document ?”, Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay and parliamentary candidate for Waveney Valley replied: “ I accept the recommendations of the Cass report “ and added “I give you my personal view on this because in the Green Party of England and Wales, we have not taken a formal party position. My view is that Hilary Cass is an eminent , experienced paediatrician and the first thing she ‘s highlighted is that there really is a toxic debate on that issue and we need to be able to  have a calm discussion about how we can support every young person’s need in a holistic way”.

Interviewed by Justin Webb from the BBC today’s radio programme on 28^th June and queried as to why a statement from the Green Party in response to the Cass Review Report was removed within an hour of publication, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer and parliamentary candidate for Bristol Central replied:  “ We realised that it was a slight over simplification , and so , we ‘ve been looking into it in a bit more details” and added :” we’re in the run up to an election campaign and so we are focussing on our manifesto and what we can deliver to voters. This is an important issue for gender questioning young people, of course, and as I say, there are some issues with the report”. Justin interjected: “ Sorry, why were you not able to improve that statement and put it back up ?” Carla explained: “So, in my opinion, there are some issues with the Cass Review that I very much hope the government will look at in some details” and added:” my concern is that there are some unintended consequences that could actually restrict access the health care that they need and that in fact goes on to exactly answer your other question…”

Carla Denyer is on the record to be unsure about the difference between conversion therapy – a horrible practice rightly about to be banned – and talking therapy as advocated by Dr Hilary Cass for children presenting with gender dysphoria at NHS gender clinics for children services.