Justin Webb hits out at guest for citing Stonewall statistic

BBC Today’s Justin Webb hits out at his own programme’s guest for citing a Stonewall statistic about transgender teenagers attempting suicide – after it went unchallenged by his colleague Nick Robinson

• Justin Webb challenged an academy school boss online about source of figures 
• Row came in the wake of this week’s shock report by think-tank Policy Exchange

A BBC presenter has hit out at disputed claims made on his own programme about the number of transgender pupils who have attempted suicide.

Justin Webb challenged an academy school boss online about the source of the figures he cited on Radio 4’s Today programme and raised the risk that they could do further damage to children.

And when Steve Chalke replied that they came from Stonewall, Mr Webb pointed out that the BBC was one of many ‘responsible organisations’ to have cut its ties with the lobby group.

The row came in the wake of this week’s shock report by think-tank Policy Exchange that revealed some schools are allowing pupils to ‘self-identify’ as the opposite sex without telling their parents.

Invited onto the BBC’s flagship news programme Today to discuss the findings Mr Chalke – the founder of the Oasis chain of academies – insisted his schools would not allow its students to change their names or pronouns without their parents’ permission. 

Justin Webb (pictured) challenged an academy school boss online about the source of the figures he cited on Radio 4’s Today programme and raised the risk that they could do further damage to children

When Steve Chalke (pictured) replied that they came from Stonewall, Mr Webb pointed out that the BBC was one of many ‘responsible organisations’ to have cut its ties with the lobby group

But he also said: ‘Just a bit of background… 64 per cent of trans pupils thinking about gender change are bullied, being LGBT in Britain schools.

‘We’re told 80 per cent of trans young people have self-harmed, 40 per cent of trans young people have attempted to take their life. So it is very serious.’

He was not asked for the source of the claims on air by interviewer Nick Robinson.

But then Mr Chalke posted on Twitter: ‘64 per cent of young people considering gender transition are bullied in Britain’s schools; 80 per cent have self-harmed; 40 per cent have attempted to take their own life.

On Thursday Mr Webb replied to Mr Chalke’s tweet: ‘What is the source for these? As we know from the Samaritans guidelines suicide is almost never the result of one cause – so are we talking about doing further damage to already damaged children?’

‘Thank you Today for interviewing me this morning around this vital safeguarding responsibility for every school.’

Later on Thursday Mr Webb replied to his tweet: ‘What is the source for these? As we know from the Samaritans guidelines suicide is almost never the result of one cause – so are we talking about doing further damage to already damaged children?’

Mr Chalke said: ‘Your point about other issues in a young person’s life – non supportive home, plus adolescent anxiety over self-image etc etc. is also important, but none of it dismisses these stark reports.’

He said he got the figures ‘from our policy documents’ then added: ‘The slide from a PowerPoint presentation at our 2021 conference, with quotes from young people, and the source – Stonewall’s 2017 School Report.’

In response Mr Webb said: ‘Will get in touch privately but worth saying publicly the BBC and other responsible organisations cut their ties with Stonewall because of this kind of claim.’

He said the figures had been ‘widely challenged’ and posted a link to a report that questioned how the attempted suicide figure was reached.

Mr Chalke was not asked for the source of the claims on air by interviewer Nick Robinson (pictured)

The study by campaigners Transgender Trend pointed out that it was based on an online survey of 3,713 people that recorded participants’ self-described gender identity rather than biological sex, did not control for other risk factors such as mental health or family problems, and failed to make clear the phrasing of the question.

It is not the first time that Mr Webb has got involved in disputes over the divisive topic of transgender rights.

Last year he admitted that he and his producers had ‘no idea’ that a transgender athlete he interviewed had previously boasted about knocking out women.

And in 2021 he had an angry on-air clash about Stonewall, telling Pink News chief executive Benjamin Cohen: ‘Number one, you don’t know anything about me. Number two, I asked you a question, so would you answer it?’

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