Tory MP disputes police decision to log anti-trans tweet as hate incident
"What I said was not transphobic at all. It's not hateful. It's not nasty," the MP insists
By Dale Fox
Conservative MP Rachel Maclean is challenging a decision by West Mercia Police to log her comments about a trans woman as a “non-crime hate incident” (NCHI).
The incident occurred when Maclean, Tory MP for Redditch, retweeted a post describing Green Party candidate Melissa Poulton as “a man who wears a wig and calls himself a ‘proud lesbian’.”
Maclean added her own comment: “While the Greens don’t know what a woman is, my Worcestershire neighbours, the people of Bromsgrove certainly do.”
Poulton filed a complaint with police about Maclean’s language. Officers then informed Maclean that her remarks had been recorded as an NCHI.
In an interview with Spiked, Maclean stated: “What I said was not transphobic at all. It’s not hateful. It’s not nasty. And it is, in fact, my right – protected by the free-speech laws in this country – to say that there is a difference between a transgender woman and a biological woman.”
She called the police decision an “utter waste of police time,” adding: “It shouldn’t be controversial to differentiate between a transwoman and biological woman.”
Commenting a recent Daily Mail front page article of which she was the subject, Maclean wrote on Instagram: “Exposing the dangerous ideology of the Green Party on unregulated and uncontrolled self ID as another gender for adults and children … Conservatives are the only ones who know what a woman is and are not afraid to say so.”
“Without a shadow of a doubt, it is a transphobic comment.”
Speaking to BBC News after the incident, Poulton said: “Oh, without a shadow of a doubt, it is a transphobic comment.”
“It’s dog whistling of the finest; it’s gaslighting,” she added.
Meanwhile, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said Maclean’s action was “a deeply offensive intervention from an elected MP, who should be representing everybody in the community, not making these nasty, snide and divisive comments.”
NCHIs do not result in criminal records, according to official statutory guidance. However, personal data can be stored by police and potentially disclosed during background checks for sensitive jobs.
A West Mercia Police spokesperson stated: “The incident was logged as a non-crime hate incident as the content of the post was perceived by the person who reported it to be hostile towards the transgender community.”