Where does new Health Secretary James Murray stand on key issues?
Wes Streeting has stepped down as Health Secretary after just two years in the role, and has been replaced by James Murray.
The Labour MP for Ealing North and former Chief Secretary to the Treasury now has one of the most influential jobs in Government, in charge of one of the largest departments, with a budget of over 200 billion pounds.
Given the CI campaigns on a variety of issues pertaining to health, we thought it worthwhile to examine where the new incumbent stands on moral issues the Institute campaigns on.
Transgender ideology
Murray, who identifies as a gay man, has previously spoken publicly in Parliament about his support for LGBT+ rights, same-sex marriage, and a ban on so called ‘conversion therapy’.
The Government recently repeated its pledge to bring forward a draft Bill to ban ‘conversion therapy’ under its plans for this parliamentary session.
On the matter of biological sex, back in 2022 Murray made the controversial statement “trans women are women”, in support of a male swimmer competing against women.
However, The Daily Telegraph recently cited a source which says his views have since changed, and that he is supportive of the Supreme Court’s judgement that ‘sex’ in the Equality Act refers to biological sex. Sir Keir Starmer made a similar volte-face after the judgment, and Murray’s predecessor Wes Streeting also changed his tune, apologising two years ago for having used the activist language.
Despite that initial bump, in his term as Health Secretary, Streeting worked to implement the findings of the Cass Review and has banned puberty blockers and new prescriptions of sex-swap drugs for under 18s on the NHS.
We hope that Murray will continue the work to protect gender-confused children from harmful medicalisation, and that he will go further than Streeting and put a permanent end to the puberty blocker trial which is in the works.
Assisted suicide
The past year in Westminster has been marked by the debates on Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill. Murray was one of the MPs who voted for legalising assisted suicide in England and Wales at Third Reading in 2025.
Though the Bill fell in the House of Lords earlier this year, activists are working to try and bring it back in the new parliamentary session.
We urge the Health Secretary to prioritise investment in palliative care, and not support any further misguided attempts to bring a ‘death service’ into the NHS.
Abortion
Since being elected at the end of 2019, Murray has voted to impose a liberal abortion regime on Northern Ireland, to make DIY home abortions permanent in England, and for the creation of censorship zones around abortion centres in England and Wales.
Last year, he also backed an extreme measure to decriminalise women who have an abortion up to birth in England and Wales — and opposed the requirement of an in-person appointment before a home abortion in England and Wales, despite the fact that over 54,000 women have been hospitalised following at-home abortion complications since 2020.
Health policy should acknowledge the humanity and dignity of the unborn, and increase protections for them, not to continue to tear them down.
Prayer and challenge
The role of Health Secretary is important and influential and would be a difficult challenge for anybody to step into.
Please join us in praying for him and all of our elected representatives as they work to lead our country, and pray for our work as we engage with politicians and speak up for Christian values in society.
Our website shows how politicians have voted on certain moral and religious freedom issues – you can search for your own MP’s voting history here.