JK Rowling has disclosed that she turned down two offers of a peerage following Kemi Badenoch’s public statement that she would nominate the writer to the House of Lords.
The acclaimed Harry Potter author, aged 59, was commended by Ms Badenoch, who, should she become successful in her bid for Conservative leadership, would have the authority to name some peers as the Opposition leader.
On her social media platform X, once known as Twitter, Rowling explained: “It’s considered bad form to talk about this but I’ll make an exception given the very particular circumstances.”
She elaborated further, saying: “I’ve already turned down a peerage twice, once under Labour and once under the Tories. If offered one a third time, I still wouldn’t take it. It’s not her, it’s me.”
In a conversation with the online broadcasting channel Talk, the ex-minister for equalities, Ms Badenoch, stated that she had “managed to get Dr Hilary Cass a peerage” after her contentious review on NHS gender identity services.
Dr Cass’s study, released in April, concluded that treatments had been unduly influenced by “ideology on all sides” and were underpinned by “remarkably weak evidence”.
Now ennobled as an independent crossbench peer, Lady Cass took up her seat on Monday, subsequent to her inclusion in Rishi Sunak’s dissolution honours earlier this year as the Conservative leader.
Rowling expressed approval of the review’s conclusions, which consequently led to NHS England ceasing the issuance of puberty blockers to young patients struggling with gender dysphoria.
Subsequently, Scotland’s sole clinic providing gender services to youngsters also halted such treatments.
The Cass Review has been met with criticism from some doctors and academics, both domestically and internationally, over its methodology. The British Medical Association has also announced plans to evaluate the review.
Rowling has consistently championed the protection of spaces for biological women and has voiced her concerns about trans issues within the sports industry.
The former Labour donor, who generously donated £1 million to the party during Gordon Brown’s leadership, has previously accused the party of “abandoning women”.
The Labour Party manifesto has committed to “modernise, simplify and reform the intrusive and outdated gender recognition law to a new process”, while also expressing pride in the Equality Act “and the rights and protections it affords women”.
“We will continue to support the implementation of its single-sex exceptions,” the Labour Party has previously stated.
Both the Labour and Conservative parties have been approached for comment.
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