Graham Linehan has expressed his "relief" at the closure of the Tavistock gender clinic, stating that trans activists have tried to "destroy" his life.
The NHS is closing its gender identity clinic for children and young people and replacing it with a regional network after it was told that only having one provider “is not a safe or viable long-term option”.
Graham Linehan reflected on his criticism of Tavistock on Dan Wootton Tonight.
Image: GB News
The contract for the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust will be brought to a close, the NHS said.
The Father Ted writer had been an outspoken critic of the institution, expressing concerns in a 2020 interview with the BBC.
Reflecting on the interview exclusively on GB News, Linehan told Dan Wootton: "They treated me like I was David Icke.
Graham Linehan says the Tavistock closure came as a 'relief'.
Image: GB News
"It was so strange because at the time they had two journalists working on the story for their own show.
"So for some reason, one part of Newsnight decided to continue the trans activist campaign to destroy my life by making me look insane.
"But at the same time, they got a story through about Tavistock, which is very rare on Newsnight because the BBC in general have been very careful to lie by omission about this subject, they don't cover it.
"Even now, when it's been revealed that 1,000 families are going to sue the Tavistock, they don't see it, they don't respond to it like the emergency that it is."
The closure follows recommendations from Dr Hilary Cass, who is leading an independent review into Gender Identity Services for children and young people.
She said there was a need to move away from a model of a sole provider and that the number of children seeking NHS help “is now outstripping the capacity of the single national specialist service”.
In her interim report, released in March, she wrote: “It has become increasingly clear that a single specialist provider model is not a safe or viable long-term option in view of concerns about lack of peer review and the ability to respond to the increasing demand.”
The NHS said the two new services are the “first step” in a national regional network “given the urgent requirement to stabilise current service provision for patients”.
The final number is yet to be decided but initial thinking suggests seven or eight services could be put in place.