Susie Green, of the charity Mermaids, with her daughter Jackie, who was born male

Transgender lobby groups are encouraging vulnerable young people and their families to push for medical intervention regardless of whether specialists agree it is the best course of action, according to clinicians who have resigned in protest from the NHS’s leading gender identity clinic.

Mermaids, the most prominent transgender pressure group, insists it does not “favour”, “lobby” or “push” for young people who identify as transgender to pursue medical intervention.

Two other organisations, Gendered Intelligence, and the Gender Identity Research and Education Society (Gires) say they do not automatically support physical intervention.

However, frontline clinicians who assessed the thousands of young people coming to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) for help, said they felt families were “systematically” demanding to be referred for life-changing hormone treatment