The first transgender MP has accused Boris Johnson’s government of breaking its “promise” by excluding trans people from a ban on conversion therapy.
Jamie Wallis, the Conservative MP for Bridgend who last week came out as trans, said he is “bitterly disappointed” that people who identify as a different gender to the one they are born into will be excluded from plans.
The Tory rallied against Downing Street’s plans to limit a ban on conversion therapies – which seek to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity – to gay people.
Taking to Twitter on Monday, Wallis said it was “wrong to exclude protections for a whole group of people from a practice described as ‘abhorrent’”.
The MP added: “If the CT (conversion therapy) ban passes through parliament without any protections for the transgender community, it cannot be described as anything other than a broken promise.”
The outcome of a double U-turn by Mr Johnson last week – in which the PM appeared to flip-flop on whether to legislate against conversion therapy – has reportedly seen No 10 settle on outlawing “only gay conversion therapy, not trans”.
LGBT+ groups and religious leaders, including former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, have put pressure on Mr Johnson to include trans people in a ban on conversion therapy.
Leading charity and 80 other organisations have pulled out of a UK government conference over the transgender conversion therapy U-turn.
In a series of tweets, Wallis said: “I’m bitterly disappointed at the government’s decision not to include gender identity in the ban on conversion therapy.
“Many have asked what my thoughts are … Understandably, concerns need to be looked at and debated, but it is wrong to exclude protections for a whole group of people from a practice described as ‘abhorrent’.”
The Tory MP added: “I hope the announcement that a separate piece of work will now be done on this issue will be done at speed.”
The government has said trans people should be “treated with the maximum possible generosity and respect” but that the “complexity of issues requires separate work to further consider transgender conversation therapy”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer suggested that the government’s U-turn on conversion therapy was a way of distracting people from the cost-of-living crisis. “The government should just keep to its promises on this,” he said.
He added: “But look, let’s be honest and clear about what’s happening today – the government is trying to get us all to talk about conversion therapy because they don’t want us focusing on the cost-of-living crisis.”
Back in July 2020, Mr Johnson denounced conversion therapy as “absolutely abhorrent”, said it “has no place in a civilised society” and vowed to bring in a ban.
