Rishi Sunak mocked trans women while speaking to Conservative MPs earlier this month, according to leaked recordings.
The Sunday PinkNews video purportedly shows the prime minister speaking to the 1922 committee’s backbench Tory MPs.
In May, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey supported the trans community. Sunak can be heard criticizing him.
LBC host Nick Ferrari questioned Davey if women may have penises. Davey said that the law recognizes trans women, thus “quite clearly” they can.
“There’s a small number of people who, actually, they have a tough time,” said the Lib Dem leader. They’re harassed, discriminated against, and have actual, significant mental health difficulties. I think we need to discuss this with more maturity and compassion.”
Sunak spoke to the 1922 members on June 5, omitting the plea for compassion.
He may be heard adding, “You have noticed that Ed Davey has been very busy.” You’ve probably seen that he’s been attempting to prove ladies have penises, like me.
I was reflecting, and you all know I’m a big advocate of everyone studying maths to 18.
“But biology to 18 is also important!”
Nic Keaney, PinkNews’ managing editor, tweeted the clip:
Sunak’s remarks incited popular indignation once they were released.
“The veneer of freedom of speech publicly is one thing but to make jokes in private, it’s another thing altogether,” said the individual who supplied PinkNews the clip.
“You wouldn’t make jokes about other marginalized people the way he did about trans people.”
“Quite a few” younger individuals in the crowd appeared “visibly uncomfortable” amid the laughs, they said.
Sunak has criticized the trans community before. He told ConservativeHome in April that “100% of women do not have penises.”
This may have been a response to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s comment that “for 99.9% of women, it is completely biological, and of course, they haven’t got a penis.”
The prime minister also plans to legally prohibit transgender people from single-sex places by changing the Equality Act’s definition of sex.
Earlier this year, he invoked a Section 35 injunction to stop Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Act. This made it simpler for trans people to acquire legal recognition without a medical diagnosis.
“No community should be the butt of a joke,” Stonewall CEO Nancy Kelley said Sunak should apologize. It’s terrible that the prime minister mocked trans persons in parliament.
“This is a far cry from his pledge to govern with compassion and would be unacceptable in any modern workplace.” The PM should apologize.”