A cabinet minister has rounded on Rishi Sunak for making a controversial trans joke while murdered transgender teenager Brianna Ghey’s mother was visiting parliament.
Penny Mordaunt, tipped as a future Conservative leadership contender, called on the prime minister to “reflect” on his widely condemned remarks.
Her provocative intervention threatened to hijack a Conservative bid to rally round Mr Sunak amid demands for him to apologise.
Penny Mordaunt took aim at the PM over his controversial trans joke
Ms Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons, said: “Whatever the rough and tumble of this place (the Commons) whatever the pressures and the stakes that are made in the heat of political combat, we owe it to the people who sent us here to strive every day to make them proud of us and this place.
“The Prime Minister is a good and caring man. I’m sure that he has reflected on things and I understand he will say something later today or perhaps even during this session.
“And that is not just about Mr and Mrs Ghey that he should reflect on, but I’m sure he is also reflecting about people who are trans or who have trans loved ones and family, some of whom sit on these green benches.”
But the Tory minister, who has drawn criticism from right-wing Tories for being “woke”, also said it was “right” for highlighting Labour’s “multiple inconsistencies” over policies.
Mr Sunak has refused to apologise for the remarks, which Brianna’s father Peter Spooner called “degrading” and “absolutely dehumanising”.
The prime minister insisted the jibe, about how to “define a woman”, was “absolutely legitimate” because he was attacking Sir Keir Starmer’s indecisiveness – and said it was “sad and wrong” that the Labour leader had linked his comments to Brianna.
Ms Mordaunt took aim at Labour too, saying: “This government is also right to hold the Opposition to account for its multiple inconsistencies and u-turns on its policy platform, and today we have supposition ended and the reality has landed about the Schrodinger £28 billion, a policy that for months and months has been both alive and dead, and is now confirmed as dead.”
Mr Sunak on Wednesday accused Sir Keir of being incapable of “defining a woman” and said it was one of a number of issues on which he had changed his mind.
But an angry Sir Keir immediately admonished the Tory leader. He said: “Of all the weeks to say that, when Brianna’s mother is in this chamber. Shame.”
The joke was condemned across the political spectrum, with one former Tory minister saying they were appalled by the PM.
Tory MP Jamie Wallis, the UK’s first transgender MP, said Mr Sunak had been insensitive: “I know from my own interactions with the prime minister that today’s display of insensitivity must have been inadvertent. Today has been a tough day for me but all I can think about right now is Brianna’s mother. Let us all think of her as we choose how to progress with this debate.”
Labour’s Jess Phillips called the prime minister “an absolute disgrace”.
She said: “Rishi Sunak is an absolute disgrace. Deplorable man with no heart, no sense, no clue. The sooner we are rid, the better.”
Top Tories rallied around the PM after he made the trans comments, with one even appearing to suggest Brianna’s father should have “actually listened” to what Mr Sunak said.
Policing minister Chris Philp told BBC Breakfast: “The Prime Minister made no reference at all to any individual trans people.
“It was Keir Starmer who introduced that. The Prime Minister was making a point about Labour’s very numerous flip-flops.”
Asked about Brianna Ghey’s father’s call for an apology, Mr Philp said: “I think anyone who is interested in this issue should actually listen to the clip, listen to the initial exchange.”
Asked if he was suggesting Brianna’s father Peter Spooner had misunderstood the Prime Minister’s comments, Mr Philp said: “I have got every respect for, obviously, the views and feelings of a bereaved father.”
Business secretary Kemi Badenoch was also among those rallying behind Mr Sunak’s trans jibe on Wednesday night.
She said it was “shameful” for the Labour leader to criticise Mr Sunak over the joke, made while Brianna’s mother was expected to be in the Commons viewing gallery.
And Ms Badenoch, who also oversees the government’s equality policy, said: “Every murder is a tragedy. None should be trivialised by political point-scoring.”
In tweets signed off by No10, the business secretary extraordinarily claimed that “as a mother, I can imagine the trauma that Esther Ghey has endured”.
