Labour’s Nadia Whittome ‘horrified’ by Tories’ anti-trans rhetoric: ‘Trans people are not to blame’

Labour MP Nadia Whittome has called the rise in anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric from the Conservative Party “horrifying.”

During the recent Tory party conference, several high profile figures such as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman made new attacks on the trans community. 

In his closing speech, Sunak told a room of Tory party members: “We shouldn’t get bullied into believing people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t.”

“A man, is a man, and a woman, is a woman, that is just common sense.”

“It’s clear that a Labour Government will be much better for the LGBTQ community than a Conservative government” – Nadia Whittome

Ms Whittome, who is the MP for Nottingham East, told Attitude: “I was horrified to see the rhetoric coming from Tory Party Conference, Rishi Sunak used in his speech in what is likely to be the last conference, before the general election. 

“It should be a time for party leaders to put forward their vision to the country. But instead, Rishi Sunak used it to attack trans people, in the same way that Suella Braverman used her speech to attack refugees, particularly LGBT refugees.”

Last month Braverman argued that being gay and fearing discrimination wasn’t enough to qualify for asylum.

Whittome went on to dub this a “deliberate strategy” to “deflect and distract from the 13 years of vandalism that [the Tories have] inflicted” on the UK. 

She continued: “People in the country know that trans people are not to blame for the problems that they face. 

“Whether that’s low wages that haven’t gone up in real terms since 2008, or long waiting lists for the NHS. Actually, the problems we have are shared, and they’ll be looking to Labour to offer real solutions to the real problems that they face, not the made up ones that were in Rishi Sunak’s speech.

Whittome has outlined to us what the Labour Party plans to do if they get into government to help the lives of trans people across the UK. 

“People in the country know that trans people are not to blame for the problems that they face”

“It’s clear that a Labour Government will be much better for the LGBTQ community than a Conservative government. 

“We will implement a trans inclusive ban on conversion therapy, a Labour Government will reduce waiting times,” she added. 

But she acknowledged that “we have to go much further than that” in order to improve lives for the community. 

“The other thing that I like to do is reform the Gender Recognition Act to make that process simpler, but we need to go much further than that. Fully de-medicalise, the gender recognition process. 

“That would bring us in line with guidance from the World Health Organisation and the UN, our European counterparts many of whom have already done this. 

“We need to be seriously working to reduce waiting times for gender affirming health care,

“These are currently sometimes up to seven years. We know that can be deadly for some.”