Rishi Sunak doubles down on anti-trans comments made at Conservative Party Conference
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has doubled down on his transphobic comments. (Phil Noble – Pool/Getty Images)
Rishi Sunak is standing by the anti-trans comments he made at this week’s Conservative Party Conference, repeating his claim that misgendering trans people is “common sense”.
At the Tories’ annual conference on Wednesday (4 October) in Manchester, the prime minister said the British public are being “bullied” into believing that “people can be any sex they want to be”.
Sunak added: “A man is a man, and a woman is a woman, that’s just common sense.”
His comments were condemned by MPs, charities, activists and the LGBTQ+ community, but it seems Sunak has no regrets.
In an interview after the conference at the Meeting of the European Political Community on Thursday (5 October) in Granada, Spain, the prime minister was asked by a reporter: “Do you in any way regret saying ‘a man is a man’ and a ‘woman is a woman’?”
Sunak responded abruptly: “No, I think a man is a man and a woman is a woman, I think most people watching this program will think that that’s common sense and that’s just a fact of biology.
“Now, of course, this is always going to be passionate, tolerant country. That’s how we always are but we can’t ignore fundamental facts of biology and saying those things shouldn’t be controversial.”
He then reiterates that most people will think it’s “just common sense”.
This isn’t the first time Sunak has attacked the trans community during his premiership.
Earlier this year he was caught on camera making jokes at the expense of trans people, laughing about “women having penises” and mocking Lib Dem leader Ed Davey for supporting trans rights.
Conservative Party members have followed suit, with health secretary Steve Barclay stating is his intention to ban transgender women from women’s hospital wards – despite UK research showing there has not been a single complaint about cis and trans women sharing wards.
Barclay’s pledge was supported by home secretary Suella Braverman, who told Sky News that “trans women have no place in women’s wards”.
Braverman has also recently attacked UK police for engaging with the queer community at Pride events, claimed migrants lie about being gay to enter the country and stated that LGBTQ+ refugees facing persecution in their home countries is not “sufficient” to claim asylum in the UK.
Trans lives have also become a punchline for backbench Tory MPs in the House of Commons.
