Dawn Butler is an inspiration to political hopefuls everywhere. If someone as limited in intelligence and lacking in integrity as the Labour MP for Brent can make it into the UK parliament, then surely anyone can.
Her characteristically poor judgement and shabby opportunism were on display once again earlier this week, during a House of Commons debate on the Cass Review into the NHS’s treatment of gender-confused kids. After Conservative health secretary Victoria Atkins had painstakingly outlined the details of a grisly medical experiment inflicted on vulnerable children, Butler asked what she believed to be the burning question of the moment. ‘Around 100 studies have not been included in the Cass report, and we need to know why’, she declared.
Here, Butler was mindlessly parroting a piece of disinformation that has done the rounds on trans-activist Twitter. It was designed to rubbish Dr Hilary Cass’s findings by claiming she had ignored all but a tiny handful of medical studies when drawing up her landmark report. BBC Radio 4’s More or Less has traced the rumour back to trans activists who either misunderstood or, more likely, deliberately misrepresented a press release shared by the British Medical Journal on social media. Cass herself has explained that her team of researchers appraised every single paper on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. Results were then taken and synthesised from high- and medium-quality studies, which amounted to 60 out of 103 available papers. Still, Butler appears to have more faith in anonymous online rumour-mongers than in the findings of a meticulous, 388-page systematic review by one of the world’s preeminent paediatricians.
On Friday, Cass explained in an interview for The Times that she has faced threats as a direct result of such disinformation. For daring to bring attention to the shaky evidence base for gender-dysphoria treatments, she has been advised to avoid using public transport for her own safety. Cass even singled out Butler’s remarks, saying she was ‘dismayed’ by the MP’s misunderstanding of the report.
According to Cass, the abuse she received ‘started the day before the report came out, when an influencer put up a picture of a list of papers that were apparently rejected for not being randomised control trials. That list has absolutely nothing to do with either our report or any of the papers [we cited].’ To those spreading this disinformation, Cass did not mince her words: ‘If you deliberately try to undermine a report that has looked at the evidence of children’s healthcare, then that’s unforgivable. You are putting children at risk by doing that.’
This is far from the first time that Butler has peddled abject nonsense on LGBT issues. She once memorably stated in a 2019 speech at the Pink News awards that ‘90 per cent of giraffes are gay’. She then added the mystifying flourish, ‘So who the hell speaks giraffe, what does that sound like?’. This was apparently a killer argument about the need for ‘LGBT-inclusive’ sex-and-relationships education in schools. Invariably, this involves indoctrinating kids with trans ideology and telling them they can be born in the wrong body.
With a straight face, Butler also claimed during a 2020 interview on Good Morning Britain that ‘babies are born without a sex’. This news will have doubtless come as a surprise to many.
Predictably, Dawn Butler has not apologised for her spreading of disinformation in parliament, for ignoring the harm done to children in the name of so-called gender-affirming care, nor for emboldening the legion of trans extremists now sending threats to Cass. Butler is apparently impervious to shame and a stranger to self-reflection. Worst of all, her brand of trans zealotry is a danger to children.
Jo Bartosch is a journalist campaigning for the rights of women and girls.
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William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
